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Article: Liver
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- Biology
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Liver
The liver is the largest organ in the abdominal cavity and is located under the right and central portions of the diaphragm. It performs over two hundred functions including digestive, metabolic, storage, and other functions. This reddish-brown organ consists of two major lobes, the right lobe and the left lobe, and two smaller lobes, the
caudate
lobe and the quadrate lobe.
Lying under the right lobe is the gallbladder, a muscular sac that is anatomically and physiologically associated with the liver. Emerging from the gallbladder is the cystic duct.
The lobes contain liver cells (hepatocytes), which secrete bile, an
alkaline
, yellow-green liquid that is composed of water, ...