Lab-grown tissue ready for liver transplants
Friday January 21st, 2011
Human liver cells grown in a lab could be used in place of donor organs after successful trials.
German
researchers used a tissue engineering approach to create new liver tissue,
which should provide a potential solution to the obstacles challenging
liver cell transplantation.
Dr Joerg-Matthias Pollok, of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Transplantation Surgery at the University Medical Centre in Hamburg, said they grew the cells on resorbable scaffolds made from material similar to surgical sutures.
Liver cell (hepatocyte) transplantation offers a possible solution in overcoming the organ shortage. In addition, liver cells have excellent regenerative potential making liver cell transplantation a viable therapeutic approach for patients with metabolic defects or fulminant hepatic failure as the native liver is preserved while liver dysfunction may resolve as regeneration occurs.
Dr Pollok said isolated liver cells, which can be used for liver cell transplantation, suffer during cell isolation and cryopreservation.
It is one reason why there is limited success with that type of transplant procedure, he said.
Writing in Liver Transplantation, the journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, he said: “Our experimental model represents a promising technique to culture human liver cells and prepare them for transplantation on a biodegradable polymer scaffold into the peritoneal cavity.
“Further studies are underway to confirm our results and may ultimately offer viable clinical options for liver cell transplantation in the future.”
A related editorial acknowledges the huge clinical potential for liver cell transplantation.
Dr Humphrey Hodgson, from the UCL Medical School, London, UK, said a number of liver cell transplantation approaches had been used in uncontrolled trials, but effective clinical protocols had not yet been established.
The use of human, rather than rodent, cells by Dr Pollok and team was an important step in advancing the science behind liver cell transplantation, he added.
Tags: Europe | Internal Medicine | UK News
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