Oct 30, 2010

Miniature human livers grown in laboratory

The research raises the prospect of growing livers that can be transplanted into patients or used to test the safety of experimental drugs.
The US scientists created the walnut sized organs by sowing seeds of human cells onto scaffolds derived from animal livers.

The original cells were then replaced with immature human liver cells before being fed nutrients and oxygen in a bioreactor.

The researchers said that after a week in the laboratory bioreactor, the livers seemed to be growing and functioning like a normal human organ.

Dr Pedro Baptista, from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, said: "Our hope is that once these organs are transplanted, they will maintain and gain function as they continue to develop."

The new research was presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.

The scientists explained how they first stripped the cells away from ferret livers using a mild detergent, leaving only the collagen support structure.

This scaffold, which provided shape and structure for the new livers, were then "seeded" with human liver cells that were introduced using the blood vessel network that remains intact after the decellularisation process.

It could take five or more years for the technology to find its way from the laboratory into hospitals.
The next step, explained the researchers, is to see if the organs will continue to function after they have been transplanted into animals. Only then will it be possible even to consider their use in humans.

Project director Professor Shay Soker, from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, said: "We are excited about the possibilities this research represents, but must stress that we're at an early stage.

"There are many technical hurdles must be overcome before it could benefit patients.

"Not only must we learn how to grow billions of liver cells at one time in order to engineer livers large enough for patients, but we must determine whether these organs are safe to use in patients."

Read more at The Telegraph

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