Mouse Study Transforms Skin Cells Into Mature Liver CellsYahoo Contributor Network
By Vonda J. Sines 9 hours ago
A California study has resulted in a medical breakthrough for patients wait-listed for liver transplants. It points toward a possible future alternative for individuals who can't get a liver due to a donor shortage and those who don't need a full-organ transplant.
Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) were able to overcome a past hurdle in regenerative medicine by creating cells that were fully mature, according to ScienceDaily. Their findings appeared in the journal Nature.
The scientists used a novel cellular reprogramming technique to transform skin cells into liver cells that were fully functioning even after they were transplanted to animals modified to have the characteristics of liver failure. Their findings suggested that the new liver cells were indistinguishable from cells in existing liver tissue. Prior research had little luck getting liver cells derived from stem cells to survive after transplanting them into liver tissue.
Liver transplants involve replacing diseased livers with whole or partial healthy organs from donors. UCSF says that a transplant is the only available cure for liver failure or liver insufficiency because of the many functions the human liver performs. The most common culprits responsible for these conditions are acetaminophen overdosing, idiosyncratic drug reactions, toxin ingestion, and viral infections.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reports that in 2012, Americans who received liver transplants numbered 28,053. Of this number, 59.8 percent were at least 50 years old.
In the California study, the team developed a method of taking skin cells to an intermediate rather than the earliest stage. Using a mixture of reprogramming genes and certain chemical compounds, they were able to transform human skin cells into cells similar to endoderm, a type of cells that eventually mature into organs like the liver.
The next step was using a gene-chemical mixture to transform these early cells into working liver cells. They began to assume a shape like liver cells and started to perform some of their functions only a few weeks later.
Next, the scientists transplanted these cells into livers of mice and monitored them. At the two-month mark, they noted signs that the cells were maturing. Nine months after that, cell growth continued at the same pace.
Findings of the research were promising as far as continued survival of the transplanted cells. The technique developed by the California researchers could eventually provide benefits to the many patients who cannot get the liver transplant they desperately need.
http://news.yahoo.com/mouse-study-transforms-skin-cells-mature-liver-cells-161600082.html
