This Daily Doodle features two themes – injections and metastasis of cancer. During our Needle Workshop, we learned how to draw up and administer intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. Our test subjects – oranges and tomatoes, which is why there is an orange with a bandage on the bottom left hand corner. We later practised on each other using normal saline.

The background of this Daily Doodle illustrates the metastasis of cancer to the liver via the portal vein. The cells in the background are hepatocyte cells that form intricate hexagonal patterns. Each point of the hexagon includes a bundle of vessels composed of a hepatic portal vein, hepatic artery and bile duct. In the center of the hexagon, there is a central vein.

Hepatocytes are responsible for protein synthesis, protein storage, synthesis of cholesterol, bile salts and phospholipids and carbohydrate metabolism. In addition, the liver cells play a major role in detoxification of both exogenous and endogenous compounds.