Liver's Early Life

Our liver has two existences – in the developing foetus it begins as a site of blood cell precursor production and then transforms at birth into the organ of epithelial tissue with the, well, liver-y functions – the bone marrow taking over blood cell generation (haematopoiesis). While the matured liver function and composition is well characterised, foetal liver has not received the same attention. Here, tissue mapping using mouse models, genetic manipulation and 3D imaging, researchers reveal the dynamics of the cells, molecules and anatomy involved in the blood cell precursor production in the early liver

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Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Still from video from work by Anjali Vijaykumar and Patrick M. Helbling, and colleagues
• Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, University Hospital and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Developmental Cell, February 2026