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British Scientists Eye Breakthrough in Lab-grown Liver
LONDON (AFP) - Scientists at an English university have grown a miniature artificial human liver in a major medical breakthrough.
It is hoped mini-livers could be used to test drugs, reducing the need for animal experiments, help repair damaged livers and eventually produce entire organs for lifesaving transplants, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
The organ, which is about the size of a thumbnail, was grown using stemcells in blood taken from umbilical cords.
Professor Colin McGuckin, who specializes in regenerative medicine, made the breakthrough with Doctor Nico Forraz at Newcastle University in northeast England.
While other scientists have created liver cells, the Newcastle team are the first to create sizeable sections of tissue from stem cells from the umbilical cord, the Daily Mail said.
The pair extracted blood from the umbilical cords of newborn babies. They were then placed in a "bioreactor" developed by NASA, which mimics the effects of weightlessness. This allows the cells to multiply more quickly.
Chemicals and hormones are then added to encourage the stem cells to turn into liver tissue.
"We take the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood and make small mini-livers," said McGuckin. "We then give them to pharmaceutical companies and they can use them to test new drugs on.
"When a drug company is developing a new drug it first tests it on human cells and then tests it on animals before beginning trials on humans," he said.
And he added: "Moving from testing on animals to humans is a massive leap and there is still a risk. But by using the mini-livers we have developed there is no need to test on animals or humans."
They could potentially be used like dialysis machines, buying time for a patient's liver to repair itself or for doctors to find a replacement liver.
Professor Ian Gilmore, a liver specialist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital in northwest England, told the BBC that the Newcastle team had made a "big ethical leap forward" in not requiring embryos to produce tissue.
"It is exciting because there is a real dearth of treatments available for people with liver disease," he said.
It is estimated that up to 10 percent of the British population have liver problems, mostly linked to lifestyle factors such as obesity and alcoholism, the BBC said.
LONDON (AFP) - Scientists at an English university have grown a miniature artificial human liver in a major medical breakthrough.
It is hoped mini-livers could be used to test drugs, reducing the need for animal experiments, help repair damaged livers and eventually produce entire organs for lifesaving transplants, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
The organ, which is about the size of a thumbnail, was grown using stemcells in blood taken from umbilical cords.
Professor Colin McGuckin, who specializes in regenerative medicine, made the breakthrough with Doctor Nico Forraz at Newcastle University in northeast England.
While other scientists have created liver cells, the Newcastle team are the first to create sizeable sections of tissue from stem cells from the umbilical cord, the Daily Mail said.
The pair extracted blood from the umbilical cords of newborn babies. They were then placed in a "bioreactor" developed by NASA, which mimics the effects of weightlessness. This allows the cells to multiply more quickly.
Chemicals and hormones are then added to encourage the stem cells to turn into liver tissue.
"We take the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood and make small mini-livers," said McGuckin. "We then give them to pharmaceutical companies and they can use them to test new drugs on.
"When a drug company is developing a new drug it first tests it on human cells and then tests it on animals before beginning trials on humans," he said.
And he added: "Moving from testing on animals to humans is a massive leap and there is still a risk. But by using the mini-livers we have developed there is no need to test on animals or humans."
They could potentially be used like dialysis machines, buying time for a patient's liver to repair itself or for doctors to find a replacement liver.
Professor Ian Gilmore, a liver specialist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital in northwest England, told the BBC that the Newcastle team had made a "big ethical leap forward" in not requiring embryos to produce tissue.
"It is exciting because there is a real dearth of treatments available for people with liver disease," he said.
It is estimated that up to 10 percent of the British population have liver problems, mostly linked to lifestyle factors such as obesity and alcoholism, the BBC said.
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