Alcohol, for instance, is detoxified in a series of reactions, until it is broken down into a harmless chemical. There are even specialized cells within the liver that eat dead or dying cells—red cells, for instance. Reusable products from the dead cells are recycled. Others are dispensed into the intestines or excreted by the kidney. Liver cells, in short, are also part of the “orchestra” of regulation and constancy—except, unlike pancreatic islet cells, they perform their regulation locally. The pancreatic cell maintains metabolic constancy, the kidneys salt constancy. The liver maintains
...more
