Here’s an interesting new technology that might ameliorate symptoms in patients with liver failure, improve liver function, and decrease demand for liver transplants. Researchers at MIT, Rockefeller University, and Boston University have created a new way of building hepatic tissue that can be used to replace diseased parts of livers.
The investigators’ building process involves putting together tiny nuggets of tissue that are composed of three types of liver cells. These nuggets can be stuck together into a large scaffold that can be customized to replace diseased tissue.
After the scaffold is implanted, it expands by up to 50 times and provides room for new cells to grow. The liver quickly fills the empty space with new cells and then the scaffold biodegrades away, leaving only healthy liver cells in its place.
Study in Science Translational Medicine: In situ expansion of engineered human liver tissue in a mouse model of chronic liver disease…
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