Liver and Nervous System

The liver occupies a strategic position in the circulation; it is the first organ to come into contact with absorbed nutrients. Therefore it functions as a major sensor of substrate, electrolyte and water input into the organism and reports this information via sensory, afferent nerves to the brain and thence via efferent nerves to other peripheral organs. The liver is also a major effector organ with a key role in maintaining whole body homeostasis. It processes energy fuels, transforms xenobiotics, synthesizes and degrades important compounds in the organism. This effector function is controlled by a complex network of humoral signal substances and effectory, efferent nerves. While the understanding of the role of hepatic afferent and efferent nerves for the function of the liver and the co-ordination of many other organs is still in its infancy in the 1990s, cerebral and autonomic nervous dysfunction accompanying various forms of liver disease have long been known. This book, the proceedings of the Falk Symposium No 103 held in Freiburg, Germany, on 4-5 October 1997, summarizes current knowledge on the interaction between the liver and the nervous system under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.