Library · Physiology
How the liver detoxifies
Make it clearer
What we call detoxifying has a technical name: biotransformation. It takes place mainly in the liver, inside the hepatocytes, which are its main cells, and it allows the body to clear both its own substances and foreign ones.
The underlying problem is easy to picture. Many of those substances do not dissolve in water, and anything that does not dissolve in water is very hard to eliminate. So the liver modifies them in steps.
In phase I, cytochrome P450 goes to work: a family of enzymes housed in the endoplasmic reticulum of the hepatocyte, a network of membranes inside the cell. Those enzymes make the molecule more polar, that is, more attracted to water. The goal of phase II is different: to form water-soluble products, that is, products that dissolve in water, which the body can then excrete.
And there is one detail that breaks the idea that the liver always neutralizes: it does not always inactivate. Some substances come out of that process turned into their toxic form or their active form.
In brief
Biotransformation occurs mainly in the liver and helps the body excrete both its own substances and foreign ones.
In phase I, cytochrome P450 in the hepatocyte's endoplasmic reticulum makes the molecule more polar.
The goal of phase II is to form water-soluble products the body can then excrete.
A substance that does not dissolve in water cannot go down the drain: it has to be made soluble first.
It does not always inactivate: some substances come out in their toxic or active form.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingBiochemistry, Biotransformation, StatPearlsPublished
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