What are the digestive functions of the liver?
Besides making bile for release in the duodenum, the liver has other digestive functions. The venous network that absorbs nutrients from the guts, called mesenteric circulation, drains its blood content almost entirely to the hepatic portal vein. This vein irrigates the liver with absorbed material from the digestion. So the liver has the functions of storing, processing and inactivating nutrients. Glucose is polymerized into glycogen in the liver; this organ also stores many vitamins and the iron absorbed in the intestine. Some important metabolic molecules, like albumin and clotting factors, are made in the liver from amino acids of the diet. In the liver ingested toxic substances, like alcohol and drugs, are inactivated too.
