The liver is an organ that is absolutely necessary for life, capable of regenerating itself to survive the regular blow it receives while cleansing the body of toxic substances. It is common for this organ to be damaged during work due to its function, and therefore self-repair is also part of its duty. For many years, however, it was assumed that this regeneration loses its vitality as the body’s ability to repair itself declines.
New research, published in Cell Systems, compares the livers of deceased, young, and old people with surprising results, showing that the liver “age” remains young even when we are old. Although some long-lived cells persist for about 10 years, the study reported that the average liver cell age is up to three years.
Dresden Research group leader of the Dresden Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD) at TU Dresden. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or 84, your liver is on average less than three years old,” Olaf Bergmann says in a statement.
To directly assess the age of human liver cells, researchers analyzed liver samples from a group of people aged 20 to 84 years old and deceased people. While radiocarbon dating, often used to determine the age of ancient artifacts, cannot be applied to human tissue, the research has been able to draw on people’s history with surface nuclear testing.
Aboveground nuclear testing was banned in 1963, but by the 1950s it had released enormous amounts of radiocarbon into the atmosphere, which then dripped into the DNA of animals. While these “negligible amounts are not harmful,” Bergmann says, they can be detected and measured in human tissue: “By comparing the values to atmospheric radiocarbon levels, we can determine the age of cells retrospectively.”
The age measurement of liver cells showed that, regardless of the age of the person from whom they came from, they are usually younger than three years old, meaning that in most cases the liver continues to regenerate and remains young throughout our lives, but this result is that not all cells are renewed at the same rate and some are ten years old.
Bergmann says, “Some studies have pointed to the possibility of longevity of liver cells, while others have shown a stable period. It was clear to us that if we wanted to know what was happening in humans, we needed to find a way to directly assess the age of human liver cells.”
Research acknowledges that directly studying cell regeneration in humans is technically very challenging. However, the cellular underlying human organ regeneration is technically very challenging. and can provide unique information about molecular mechanisms
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