Although people have known about liver regeneration for a long time, it was not until the 1900s that liver regeneration was formally studied and discovered to occur in all mammals. To study liver regeneration, in 1931, Higgins and Anderson performed an experiment in rats, in which the two largest lobes of the liver were very carefully removed. Work with animals involves the use of clean instruments, anesthesia, and respectful treatment. Because the liver has a lot of blood vessels, to avoid bleeding, the main vessels of the liver were tied with a special thread. Higgins and Anderson found that the rat liver returned to its normal size in 7 days. Even today, this is still the most popular way for scientists to study liver regeneration. Using experiments of this type, we are able to understand what kind of genes, hormones, and growth factor proteins participate in the process of liver regeneration.

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