Scientists from Yokohama City University have created the first functional human liver from stem cells derived from flesh and blood.
Time and again, countries across the world have experienced shortage of donor organs for critically ill patients awaiting transplants. Hoping to solve this problem, scientists from Yokohama City University tried creating a functional human liver from stem cells derived from flesh and blood and were successful. Their initial success provides a ray of hope in eliminating the problem of scarcity of much-needed livers and other organs in the future.
Though the team was successful, researchers say it would take at least 10 years before lab-created livers could be used to treat patients. However, it does provide proof that there's a possibility of more ambitious organ-growing experiments being successful.
There are two main forms of stem cells - embryonic stem cells, which are harvested from embryos, and reprogrammed "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS cells), often taken from skin or blood. For this experiment, the Japanese team used iPS cells and created three different cell types that normally combine in the natural formation of a human liver in a developing embryo. These three cell types were mixed and left to grow. Researchers found that after a while the cells began forming three-dimensional structures called "liver buds." Cell buds are a collection of liver cells that develop into a full organ.
These buds were them implanted into a mouse body and researchers found that the liver buds began to mature within two days and after approximately 10 days started performing many functions of a mature human liver. The mouse was given two drugs to see how they would be metabolized by the animal. The team observed that it was "similar to that of a human adult liver."
"We successfully generated ... functional human liver," the Japanese team wrote. While emphasizing that they still have a long way to go, they said their approach can help address the "critical shortage of donor organs for treating end-stage organ failure."
This is not the first time, body organs have been created from cells. In April last year, a team of American scientists created a rat kidney in a lab that was able to function like a natural one. Last May, British researchers claimed they had created a beating heart from skin cells, which could in the future be used to treat patients with heart problems including heart failure.
The findings were published in Nature.
