Researchers at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) have succeeded in producing liver cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells. The results of the study are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The findings open the way to the development of new therapies with stem cells liver for many patients who have run out of options because lack of liver tissue donation for transplantation. By producing an ample supply of liver cells can be transplanted to patients without risk of immune rejection, stem cell therapy could save lives.
The problem with stem cell therapy is that adult stem cells are difficult to isolate or produce in culture. But the cells induced pluripotent stem (iPS cells) can be generated from small amounts of tissue from patients and can occur indefinitely in culture. Thus, liver cells, iPS cells derived from specific patient can be generated not only in large quantities but also for each patient, avoiding immune rejection problems associated with incompatible donor liver or embryonic stem cells.
reprogramming process can become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from skin or blood cells, liver cells capable of repairing damaged liver tissue.
Scientists human iPS cells generated from a variety of adult human cells, including fibroblasts, bone marrow cells and skin cells and showed that the internal structures of cells or molecular scenarios are similar and stem cells. Then the researchers "taught" to human iPS cells to first become mature liver cells, using a set of procedures that mimic the different stages of liver development. Regardless of the origin of tissues, human iPS cells showed all the same capacity to differentiate into liver cells.
Researchers went to a mouse model of liver disease and evaluated the liver cells derived from human iPS cells for their ability to regenerate liver tissue.
The authors found that liver cells derived from human iPS cells grown in fresh mouse liver with an efficiency of between 8 and 15 percent. The new liver cells were also fully functional, proteins secreted by normal liver cells were detected in the blood of mice was transplanted liver cells derived from human iPS cells.
Although the results indicate that readily available tissues such as skin or blood could help heal the damaged liver, further studies are needed they can use liver cells derived from human iPS cells.
Source: europapress.es
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