The liver is one of the most important organs in the body. It’s a detox factory breaking down potentially harmful chemicals into harmless ones, including drugs and alcohol.

But that’s not all. We now know it also flushes out cholesterol from the body, which could lead to more effective treatments for heart disease.

Leeds University researchers have found the production of bile, vital for flushing excess cholesterol from the body, is dependent on blood flow in the liver’s portal vein from the intestine.

But this flushing out of cholesterol isn’t steady.

It varies throughout the day as blood flow in the portal vein increases and decreases with movement, rest and intake of food.

Bile production increases when blood flow in the portal vein decreases, which happens when we exercise or fast. Conversely, bile production is lower when blood flow in the portal vein increases, which happens when we eat and rest.

It follows that low bile production can lead to high levels of cholesterol in the blood and fatty liver disease.

If untreated, this may develop into cirrhosis, currently affecting one in three people in the UK, but also liver cancer and liver failure.

Leeds researcher Dr Laeticia Lichtenstein says: “This discovery, that the liver does not have a constant and stable function but is able to sense the changes and adjust its functionality depending on the body’s needs, is incredible.” Their fascinating research revealed for the first time that portal vein blood flow is linked to cholesterol levels in our blood.

It does this through a pressure sensing protein called PIEZO1, which detects blood flow through the vein, sparking a chemical chain reaction that turns cholesterol in the blood into bile acids, eliminated from the body in bile.

Cholesterol is essential for the body’s normal functioning and is found in all the cells of the body.

We know there’s “good” cholesterol, which helps the body’s functioning, and “bad” which can build up in arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

High cholesterol levels are seen with diets high in saturated and trans fats; a lack of physical activity; obesity; smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

A better understanding of factors, such as portal blood flow and how it regulates fats would improve how medications work.

Dr Lichtenstein adds: “Our findings can be used by surgeons and experts in diseases of the liver and digestive system such as gallstones and liver cirrhosis, in their treatment of patients, to understand better the origins of these diseases.”

This breakthrough provides an opportunity for the development of new treatments to tackle heart disease and fatty liver disease.