Summary
The liver is described as a composite system consisting of a set of operative creodic microunits open to a continuous flow of matter, energy and informations. Its dynamics depend on two interactive and interrelated subsystems with actions described ashomopoiesis andhomeorhesis, making it anautoisodiasostic system. The system’s emergent (equifinal) or emergence states, operative potential, diffusion and reaction phenomena and compensation states are also formally described. For readers not familiar with the language of general system theory, of system dynamics and of categorical analysis, a glossary of some terms is provided.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham R., Shaw R.: Dynamics. the Geometry of Behaviours. Periodic Behaviour. Aerial Press Inc., Santa Cruz, CA, 1985.
Bertalanffy von L.: General System Theory. Braziller, New York, 1969.
Boiteux A., Hess B., Selikov E. E.: Creative functions of instability and oscillations in metabolic systems. In: Current Topics in Cellular Regulation, Vol. 17. Academic Press Inc., New York, 1980.
David H., Reinke P.: The concept of the ‘perisinusoidal functional unit’ of the liver. Importance to pathological processes — Exp. Pathol.32, 193–224, 1987.
Degn H.: Bi-stability caused by substrate inhibition of peroxidase in an open reaction system — Nature (Lond.)217, 1047–1050, 1968.
Dioguardi N.: Il Fegato, un Sistema Aperto. Masson Italia, Milano, 1984.
Dioguardi N.: The liver. An example of an autoisodiasostic system — Dinamica dei Sistemi2, 25–41, 1988.
Dioguardi N., Di Padova C., Pietrogrande M.: Il Sistema Epatico. La sua Funzione ed i Differenti Quadri della sua Insufficienza. Relazione Ufficiale 83° Congr. Soc. Ital. Medicina Interna. L. Pozzi Ed., Roma, 1982.
Dioguardi N., Kasangian S.: A categorical characterization of liver system autoisodiasostasis — Dinamica dei Sistemi2, 43–49, 1988.
Fausto N., Mead J. E., Braun L., Panzica M., Goyette M., Bell G. I., Shank P. R.: Protooncogene expression and growth factors during liver regeneration. In: Symposium on Fundamental Cancer Research, by the University of Texas System Cancer Center, Vol. 39, 1987; pp. 69–86.
Fleishaker G. R.: Autopoiesis: the status of its system logic — Bio Systems22, 37–49, 1988.
Garfinkel A.: A mathematics for physiology — Amer. J. Physiol.245, 455–466, 1983.
Garfinkel A.: The slime moldDictyostelium as a model of self-organization in social systems. In:Yates F. E. (Ed.): Self-Organizing Systems. The Emergence of Order. Plenum Press, New York and London, 1987; pp. 181–212.
Gomucio J. J., May M., Dvorak C., Chinale J., Massey V.: The isolation of functionally heterogeneous hepatocytes of the proximal and distal half of the liver acinus in the rat — Hepatology6, 932–944, 1986.
Habermas J.: Der Positivismusstreit in der Deutschen Soziologie. Luchterhand Verlag, GmbH, Berlin, 1969.
Hess B.: Oscillations in biochemical and biological systems — Bull. Inst. Maths Applics12, 6–10, 1976.
Iberall A.: Toward a General Science of Viable Systems. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1972.
Iberall A.: On Nature, Life, Mind and Society, Fragments of a Vigorous System Science. Gen. Tech. Serv. Inc., Upper Darby, PA, 1976.
Iberall A. S., Soodak H.: A physics for complex systems. In:Yates F. E. (Ed.): Self-Organizing Systems. The Emergence of Order. Plenum Press, New York and London, 1987; pp. 499–520.
Jungermann K., Katz N.: Functional hepatocellular heterogeneity — Hepatology2, 382–395, 1982.
Kalayoglu M., Sollinger H. W., Stratta R. J., D’Alessandro A. M., Hoffmann R. M., Pirsch J. D., Belzer F. O.: Extended preservation of the liver for clinical transplantation — Lanceti, 617–619, 1988.
Kling V., Szekely G.: Simulation of rhythmic nervous activities. I. Function of networks with cyclic inhibition — Kybernetik5, 89–103, 1968.
Lautt W. W.: Hepatic nerves: a review of their functions and effects — Canad. J. Physiol. Pharmacol.58, 105–123, 1980.
Louie A. H.: Categorical system theory. In:Rosen R. (Ed.): Theoretical Biology and Complexity. Academic Press Inc., Orlando, San Diego, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Sydney, Tokyo, 1985; pp. 69–163.
Mandelbrot B. B.: Les Objects Fractals. Flammarion, Paris, 1974–1984.
Maturana H. R.: Biology of cognition. In:Maturana H. R., Varela F. J. (Eds): Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, 1970; pp. 2–58.
Maturana H. R.: Introduction to biology of cognition. In:Maturana H. R., Varela F. J. (Eds): Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, 1970b; pp. xi-xxx.
Maturana H. R.: Autopoiesis: reproduction, heredity and evolution. In: Autopoiesis, Dissipative Structures, and Spontaneous Social Orders. Westview Press, Inc., Boulder, 1980; pp. 45–79.
Maturana H. R.: Autopoiesis. In:Zeleny M. (Ed.): Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organization. North-Holland, New York, 1981; pp. 21–33.
Maturana H. R., Varela F. J.: Autopoiesis: the organization of the living. In:Maturana H. R., Varela F. J. (Eds): Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, 1970; pp. 73–141.
Maturana H. R., Varela F. J. (Eds): Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, 1970.
Miller J. G.: Living Systems. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978.
Panduro A., Shalaby F., Shafritz D. A.: Liver specific gene expression in various pathophysiologic states — Hepatology7, 10S-18S, 1987.
Patnaik P. R.: Some features of oscillatory glycolysis in coupled reactors — Bio Systems21, 95–98, 1988.
Poincaré H.: Sur le Problème des Trois Corps et les Equations de la Dynamique — Acta Mathematica13, 67–73, 1890.
Prigogine I., Stengers I.: La Nouvelle Alliance. Métamorphose de la Science. Gallimard, Paris, 1979.
Rapp P. E.: An atlas of cellular oscillations — J. exp. Biol.81, 281–306, 1979.
Rapp P. E.: Bifurcation theory, control theory and metabolic regulation. In:Linkens D. A. (Ed.): Biological Systems, Modelling and Control. Peter Peregrins Ltd, Stevenage, UK and New York, 1979; pp. 1–83.
Rapp P. E., Mess A. I., Sparrow C. T.: Frequency encoded biochemical regulation is more accurate than amplitude dependent control — J. theoret. Biol.90, 531–544, 1981.
Rojkind M., Greenwell P.: The liver as a bioecological system. In:Arias M., Jacobi W., Popper H., Schachter D., Shafritz D. (Eds): Liver: Biology and Pathophysiology. 2nd Edition. Raven Press Ltd, New York, 1987; pp. 1269–1285.
Rojkind M., Greenwell P., Saed S. O., Zern M. A., Weiner F. R.: Production of fibrogenic factor by hepatocytes of CCl4 treated rats — Hepatology8, 1228, 1988.
Rosen R.: Fundamentals of Measurement and Representation of Natural Systems. Elsevier/North-Holland, New York-Oxford, 1979.
Rosen R.: Organisms as causal systems which are not mechanisms: an essay into nature of complexity. In:Rosen R. (Ed.): Theoretical Biology and Complexity. Academic Press Inc., Orlando, San Diego, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Sydney, Tokyo, 1985; pp. 165–203.
Schrödinger E.: What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1962.
Soodak H., Iberall A.: Homeokinetics: a physical science for complex systems — Science201, 579–582, 1978.
Sporn M. B., Roberts A. B., Wakefield L. M., Assoian R. K.: Transforming growth factor-β: biological function and chemical structure — Science233, 532–534, 1986.
Stent S. G.: Neural circuits for generating rhythmic movements. In:Yates F. E. (Ed.): Self-Organizing Systems. The Emergence of Order. Plenum Press, New York and London, 1987; pp. 245–263.
Varela F. J.: Describing the logic of the living — the adequacy and limitations of the idea of autopoiesis. In:Zeleny M. (Ed.): Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organization. North-Holland, New York, 1981; pp. 36–48.
Varela F. J., Maturana H. R., Uribe R.: Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model — Bio Systems5, 187–196, 1974.
Waddington C. H.: Evolution of an Evolutionist. University Press, Edinburgh, 1975.
Yates F. E.: Outline of a physical theory of physiological systems — Canad. J. Physiol. Pharmacol.60, 217–248, 1982.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This paper forms part of research on pre-cancer states of the liver system, financed by theAssociazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC), Milan and by theOspedale Maggiore — Istituto Scientifico di Ricovero e Cura — Milan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dioguardi, N. The liver as A self-organizing system. I. Res. Clin. Lab. 19, 281–299 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02871818
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02871818