M. Eric Gershwin • John M. Vierling
Michael P. Manns
Editors

2014

Principles and Practice

Recognition of the importance of the liver to health by Babylonians in the nineteenth century BCE stands in stark contrast to the relative obscurity of the liver in the minds of most educated adults today. Medical appreciation of the vital nature of the liver’s diverse functions continues to evolve along with our efforts to better understand a multitude of hepatobiliary diseases caused by alcohol, xenobiotics, viruses, autoimmunity, and genetic diseases. The unanticipated success of liver transplantation in the absence of histocompatibility matching between donor and recipient showed that the hepatic environment is immunosuppressive.