A doctor examines a tissue sample from a patient's liver. She notices that some liver cells are dividing to replace cells that were damaged by disease. Explain how the liver cells produce new cells that are genetically identical to the original liver cell.

The liver cell first replicates its DNA during the S phase of the cell cycle, producing a complete copy of each chromosome so that each chromosome is now a sister chromatid.
The duplicated chromosomes are then segregated during mitosis, ensuring that each daughter nucleus receives a full set of 46 chromosomes.
Mitosis produces two daughter cells from the single parent cell.
Because each daughter cell receives an identical set of chromosomes, the daughter cells are genetically identical to the parent liver cell and to each other.