# Can the liver can grow back? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699 "2001-06-05T17:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chubbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Chubbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chubbs)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/1 "2001-06-05T17:10:23Z")
Was this guy joking when he said they can remove up to 75% of your liver and it will grow back? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/2 "2001-06-05T17:15:33Z")
Great lunchtime subject. I had approximately 2/3rds of my liver removed and have been told it’s near normal now. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/3 "2001-06-05T17:19:32Z")
What are you, beatle? A starfish? A flatworm. Maybe you’re a glass lizard and you keep your liver in your tail. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/4 "2001-06-05T18:08:11Z")
No, no, beatle’s got it right! A non-cirrhotic, non-scarred liver should be able to regenerate. Qadgop,MD ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/5 "2001-06-05T18:15:14Z")
hey! I’ve always wondered this myself. I always hear on television about splitting up organs to transplant into children and I wondered if they just get pieces sewn in, or if they grow. Do other things like kidneys and lungs grow? weird. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/6 "2001-06-05T22:25:46Z")
Yep, glass lizard, that’d be it. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/7 "2001-06-06T00:47:35Z")
Jarbaby, My A&P teacher said that the liver is unique in it’s regernative properties (and only if you don’t have cirrhosis like Qadgop said) so unfortunately, you can’t divide up the other organs. Too bad, huh? But, on the bright side, a dad can have a part of his liver lopped off to give to his sick child, and both pieces will grow back into funtioning livers. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/8 "2001-06-06T01:00:19Z")
Anyone notice a correspondence to the myth of Prometheus? Chained to a Caucasus mountain, an eagle ate away at his liver every day and it was regenerated every night. You think the ancients knew about this? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/9 "2001-06-06T01:48:50Z")
Why do people find it so difficult to believe that the human body still retains some capacity for regeneration? Blood is continuously regenerated, as is bone marrow (not surprising since blood cells are formed in the bone marrow). Hair, skin and nails grow back. The liver can grow back. Anything else? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-liver-can-grow-back/67699/10 "2001-06-06T02:06:31Z")
[quote] Anything else?\*\* Yes, **nerve regeneration** can occur, and is a hot topic in the area of spinal cord injuries. I’ll not pretend to know much about it - just searcg google for it and you’ll learn a bunch. I’ve had some experience of that (why do I feel like I’m becoming intimate with, of all things, a GQ thread?). Amongst other experiences, I had a finger nearly severed in an industrial accident (RH index) and it was numb for several years. Several times I felt the tingle of a bit more coming back and it is now (27 years later) fully tactile with the exception of the scar tissue at the stitched up area.