Liver Education with Morgan da Organ

Morgan here! 

“I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the proteins I produce and what they do.  This stuff can be so complicated that you almost need a medical degree to understand it.  Macrophages phagocytize what?!!?  I’m a liver, not a brain!  But, this is what I’ve come up with: 

I produce many proteins-

• Each protein does a different task;
• Each task is very specialized, but
•  All tasks are very similar.

Class Again???

Kind of sounds like a riddle but I’m going to break it down for you the best I can.” Here I go:

Proteins are molecules made from tiny building blocks called amino acids and are a vital part of all living things.  Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissue in your body.  Your muscles, your organs and your immune system are made up mostly of proteins.  They are essential for life.  After water, protein is the most plentiful substance in your body.

Proteins Produced By Your Liver

Albumin – The most common protein found in your blood.  It provides your body with the protein needed to both maintain growth and repair tissues.  Inflammation and infection will cause an albumin level to drop. Albumin helps retain calcium in the blood stream and regulates the movement of water from your bloodstream into your tissues.

Globin- One of the two components that form hemoglobin (hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying substance in red blood cells).

Globulins – A group of proteins that includes antibodies.  These are the proteins that make up the complement system (a part of the immune system) that combines with antibodies to fight invading microorganisms.

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) – A protein found in all body tissues.  Tissues with higher amounts of ALP include the liver, bile ducts, and bone.  Blood levels may be increased in any liver disease, but more markedly with cholestasis (a stoppage or slowing of the flow of bile).

Alpha 1 (AAT) – Plasma protein that inhibits the activity of trypsin and other proteolytic enzymes (these enzymes facilitate the breakdown of rouge proteins in your bloodstream and in the soft tissue of your body.)  The main function is to protect the lungs from inflammation caused by infection and inhaled irritants.  Inherited deficiency of Alpha 1 leads to emphysema and sometimes cirrhosis.

Antibodies – proteins produced in response to a foreign and potentially harmful invader. They have a special shape, and combine chemically with these substances to flush them out of your body.

Ceruloplasmin – Copper transporter protein.  It also plays a role in iron metabolism.  This protein transports 95% of  the copper in your blood plasma.  Copper plays an important role in the body by aiding important bodily processes, such as producing energy, forming connective tissue, and helping the central nervous system function.

Aminotransferase- A hepatocyte enzyme that modifies proteins (hepatocyte is a cell of the main tissue of the liver).  Blood levels increase in the setting of hepatocyte death.  The two aminotransferases important in liver disease are AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALT (alanine aminotransferase). AST is normally found in a variety of tissues including liver, heart, muscle, kidney and brain.  It is released when any one of these tissues is damaged.  For example, AST level in your bloodstream is elevated in heart attacks or muscle injury.  It is therefore, not a highly specific indication of liver injury as its elevation can occur as a result of other injured tissues.  ALT is, by contrast, normally found largely in the liver.  This is not to say that it is exclusively located in the liver, but that is where it is most concentrated.  It is released into the bloodstream as a result of liver injury.  Thus, it serves as a fairly specific indicator of liver status. (Plucky reminded me that I need to reference MedicineNet.com, November 8, 2014 here)

Prothrombin – A protein that helps to clot blood.  A prothrombin time test measures how much time it takes for a person’s blood to clot.  The normal time needed is between 10-15 seconds.  A longer prothrombin time can be caused by a number of things including serious liver disease, a lack of Vitamin K, blood-thinning medication or certain bleeding disorders.

 

“WOW! That was a lot to learn! I’m tired from just reading about all that goes on inside of me. And, I’ve just been told that by no means is this a complete list of all the proteins I produce.  Did you know what happens to my production  of one of these proteins if you don’t drink enough fluids? (no, beer doesn’t count as a fluid). OK, I’ll let you think about that one cause enough for today. I’ll  cover each in more detail in my future blogs.”

Mogan