Growing Livers in the Lab for Transplants and Research
The promise of early research on livers grown to order for transplantation in patients with end-stage liver disease has unfortunately failed to be realized as yet. In 2005 British scientists led by Forraz and McGuckin succeeded in isolating stem cells from umbilical cord blood and creating so-called ‘mini-livers’ in the laboratory. There was a media hubbub where suggestions were made that this would lead to the ability in 2011 to use artificially grown pieces of liver tissue to repair damaged livers in patients, with full organ transplants expected in 2021 (Daily Mail, 2006). Although the research is proceeding with considerable rapidity, the replacement of diseased liver tissue with artificially-grown organ components is not yet available, highlighting the slow and painstaking process that frustrates many of those offered the hope of a possible cure using stem cell treatment.
Testing Drugs Using Liver Stem Cells
One area that this artificial liver tissue is proving useful however, is in testing novel drug treatments without the initial need for either animal or human experiments, thus reducing safety concerns and appeasing those working to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research (Jurga, et al, 2010). There is no guarantee however that these artificial livers would metabolize drugs in a similar way to a patient’s liver due to the complex combination of environmental factors, including diet, genotype, and toxicity from previous drug use and other sources that influence a person’s ability to metabolize pharmaceuticals. Just as animal livers are often a poor indication of a human’s metabolic process for a particular chemical, these artificial liver tissues would only be usable as an initial guide for researchers, but would be helpful nonetheless.
Growing Mini-Livers for ‘Dialysis’
The researchers at Newcastle University said that they envisaged the ‘mini-livers’ being used in a similar way to kidney dialysis machines, with a patient undergoing several liver ‘dialysis’ sessions a day over a period of a few months in order to allow their own liver to recuperate. This could either remove the necessity for a liver transplant or at least keep the patient alive for longer while a suitable donor is found.
References
McGuckin CP, Forraz N, Baradez MO, Navran S, Zhao J, Urban R, Tilton R, Denner L., Production of stem cells with embryonic characteristics from human umbilical cord blood, Cell Prolif. 2005 Aug;38(4):245-55.
Jurga M, Forraz N, McGuckin CP., Artificial human tissues from cord and cord blood stem cells for multi-organ regenerative medicine: viable alternatives to animal in vitro toxicology, Altern Lab Anim. 2010 May;38(2):183-92.
MacRae, F., British scientists grow human liver in a laboratory, October 31st, 2006, http://j.mp/h9GBM8
Arzumanyan A, Friedman T, Ng IO, Clayton M, Lian Z, Feitelson MA., Does the hepatitis B antigen HBx promote the appearance of liver cancer stem cells, Cancer Res. 2011 Apr 4. [Epub ahead of print]
Kisseleva T, Gigante E, Brenner DA., Recent advances in liver stem cell therapy, Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2010 Jul;26(4):395-402.
Mohamadnejad M, Alimoghaddam K, Mohyeddin-Bonab M, Bagheri M, Bashtar M, Ghanaati H, Baharvand H, Ghavamzadeh A,Malekzadeh R., Phase 1 trial of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis, Arch Iran Med. 2007 Oct;10(4):459-66.
Qiao H, Tong Y, Han H, Xu W, Ren Z, Ouyang J, Chen Y., A novel therapeutic regimen for hepatic fibrosis using the combination of mesenchymal stem cells and baicalin, Pharmazie. 2011 Jan;66(1):37-43.
Kasuda S, Tatsumi K, Sakurai Y, Kato J, Taminishi S, Takeda T, Ohashi K, Okano T, Hatake K, Shima M., Expression of coagulation factors from murine induced pluripotent stem cell-derived liver cells, Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis. 2011 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Anzalone R, Lo Iacono M, Corrao S, Magno F, Loria T, Cappello F, Zummo G, Farina F, La Rocca G., New emerging potentials for human Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells: immunological features and hepatocyte-like differentiative capacity, Stem Cells Dev. 2010 Apr;19(4):423-38.
Marongiu F, Gramignoli R, Dorko K, Miki T, Ranade AR, Paola Serra M, Doratiotto S, Sini M, Sharma S, Mitamura K, Sellaro TL,Tahan V, Skvorak KJ, Ellis EC, Badylak SF, Davila JC, Hines R, Laconi E, Strom SC., Hepatic differentiation of amniotic epithelial cells, Hepatology. 2011 Mar 3. doi: 10.1002/hep.24255. [Epub ahead of print]
