Who controls the controllers?

Abstract

In a novel study of children who received livers transplanted from adult donors, Lisman and colleagues describe how plasma levels of coagulation proteins remain at pediatric levels posttransplantation, suggesting that control of the plasma levels is not primarily driven by the liver itself.1 This study raises numerous important questions about the biology and regulation of the coagulation system, a key control system in our bodies, and should be the stimulus for much further research.