THE ANATOMY OF THE LIVER If we imagine the veins and arteries that carry our blood as a closed circuit racetrack, we could well think of the liver as a required "pit stop" on the circuit. The blood must pass through this checkpoint, and when it does it is prepared for another circuit. The liver is designed to do this efficiently. The liver is composed of about 100,000 liver lobules (image size 67k), which are cylindrical structures less than an inch long. (Imagine a round pencil cut into small pieces.) A lobule is made of hepatic plates ("hepatic" simply means "liver") that contain a number of liver cells. Between these plates of liver cells are the hepatic sinusoids, curvy "passageways" that allow blood to flow around the liver cells. Between the sinusoids and hepatic plates are special cells called the Kupffer cells that can digest bacteria and other foreign matter found in the blood. When blood flows between the hepatic plates, it is cleansed of harmful and unnecessary matter.

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THE ANATOMY OF THE LIVER If we imagine the veins and arteries that carry our blood as a closed circuit racetrack, we could well think of the liver as a required "pit stop" on the circuit. The blood must pass through this checkpoint, and when it does it is prepared for another circuit. The liver is designed to do this efficiently. The liver is composed of about 100,000 liver lobules. A lobule is made of plates that contain a number of liver cells. Between these plates of liver cells are the passageways that allow blood to flow around the liver cells. Between the passageways & cells are special cells called 'Kupffer' cells, that can digest bacteria and other foreign matter found in the blood. When blood flows between the plates, these cells process harmful and unnecessary matter to what the Kidneys can eliminate from the blood or directly put it in bile for elimination through the intestines.