Liver cells on the conveyor
Scientists have developed a technology that allows mass growing of liver cells
Biologists from Japan and the USA have demonstrated a technology that overcomes the main obstacles in the artificial creation of human liver tissues suitable for therapeutic transplantation to sick people.
A few years ago, bioengineers began to develop a direction called "organoid technology" – a technology for growing artificial organs. The scientists had a goal to get away from direct dependence on donors who supplied biological organs to sick people in need of transplantation.
According to the UN, about 30% of sick people die without waiting for an organ transplant. But until recently, the creation of artificial organs due to the imperfection of technology remained an elusive task. In their new work, the scientists used induced human pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to grow liver cells. These cells are obtained from cells of various tissues by their genetic reprogramming.
Pluripotency in their name means the possibility of converting such cells into any kind (liver cells, heart cells, etc.). At the preparatory stage, the researchers, using iPSC cells as donors, began mass production to grow three types of progenitor cells needed to create a liver. These are hepatic endoderm cells, endothelial and mechenzymal cells.
Then these progenitor cells were placed in specially designed, film-coated microlunks. In these microlunks, self-organizing three-dimensional fragments ("kidneys") of the liver were formed. After more than 20,000 such hepatic "kidneys" were generated in the microlunke, capable, as scientists write, of reaching a therapeutically viable level, they were transplanted to animals with severe liver diseases.
And, as experiments have shown, such transplants saved laboratory animals. According to scientists, their new technology allows to grow artificial liver tissue of such volumes that are sufficient for transplantation to a patient with severe liver disease or with organ dysfunction.
Since liver tissues were generated entirely from human-induced cells, this made them safe, without the byproducts of animal cells that were used for research purposes earlier.
"Since we can now overcome the obstacles to creating highly functional liver tissues, our production process is close to clinical-level standards. As a result, this will allow us to help many people with end-stage liver disease. We want to save the lives of children who need liver transplantation, overcoming the shortage of donor liver available for this," the authors write.
The study is published in the journal Cell Reports (Takebe et al., Massive and Reproducible Production of Liver Buds Entirely from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells).
Previously, "seeds" with liver cells, developed by scientists from several American universities, also took root in sick mice.
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