The Aging Human Liver: The Weal and Woe of Evolutionary Legacy

Abstract

AbstractAging is characterized by the progressive decline of biological integrity and its compensatory mechanisms as well as immunological dysregulation. This goes along with an increasing risk of frailty and disease. Against this background, we here specifically focus on the aging of the human liver. For the first time, we shed light on the intertwining evolutionary underpinnings of the liver’s declining regenerative capacity, the phenomenon of inflammaging, and the biotransformation capacity in the process of aging. In addition, we discuss how aging influences the risk for developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, and/or autoimmune hepatitis, and we describe chronic diseases as accelerators of biological aging.