First case of functional liver grown from stem cells

jenrio · July 2013

Quote:

"To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the generation of a functional human organ from pluripotent stem cells," the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

Malcolm Allison, a stem cell expert at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the research, said the study's results offered "the distinct possibility of being able to create mini livers from the skin cells of a patient dying of liver failure" and transplant them to boost the failing organ.

Takanori Takebe, who led the study, told a teleconference he was so encouraged by the success of this work that he plans similar research on other organs such as the pancreas and lungs

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-liver-stemcells-idUSBRE9620Y120130703

http://www.nature.com/news/miniature-human-liver-grown-in-mice-1.13324

This is the future. Cancer patients at the verge of liver failure/lung failure could get immuno-compatible organs without immunosuppression.

curveball · July 2013

Maybe someday those of us with liver mets will be able to get rid of them by having a new liver grown from cancer-free stem cells.

jenrio · July 2013

3 implications both are very important for cancer patients:

1. currently cancer patients aren't eligible or are very low-priority for precious transplant (unless you are steve jobs). Also survival is dismal because after transplant, you need to take immunosuppressant drugs which does not help with the spreading cancer. Making liver/lungs/kidneys out of cancer patient's own cells would solve the problem.

2. creating functional human livers (from patient's own cells) in mouse could help with drug development by understanding the drug toxicity.

California has a regenerative medicine program and has lots of clinical trials on stem cell regenerations. Sometimes it may be less building a complete organ out of stem cells, more like injecting stem cells to help tissue repair and grow.

http://www.mayo.edu/research/discoverys-edge/toward-bioartificial-liver-buying-time-boosting-hope

http://www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/center-regenerative-medicine/liver-regeneration

All of these approaches need to figure out whether the stem cell could cause cancers and how to turn the stem cell off if it's growing like a cancer. Interestingly, that's where it has yet another implication for cancer treatment. Because cancer patients also want to figure out how to turn the cancer cell off!

So basic science investment is the best investment we could make. We need to take a stand and take the risk on innovation. Every little bits of understanding add up.

First case of functional liver grown from stem cells

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