PITTSBURGH (KDKA) In a dish sits a human liver.<\/p>\n
Not removed from a person, but created from scratch.<\/p>\n
Its not like wahoo and the next morning you think, ah, Im gonna make a human liver,' says Dr. Alejandro Soto-Gutirrez of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center.<\/p>\n
It took five years of trial and error but using stem cells, genetic and tissue engineering, organ cultures and a team of experts in these areas, the researchers have come up with this.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Collin de Lhortet, Ph.D. of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine explains the process.<\/p>\n
A rat liver gets stripped of its cells so that only the connective tissue remains.<\/p>\n
From a small piece of human skin, the scientists pluck out stem cells and coax them into becoming human liver cells and the cells are collected.<\/p>\n
Then theyre injected into the chamber, called a bioreactor, where they take up residence in the empty rat liver.<\/p>\n
The entire process from gathering the cells to make a liver, to get to this point, where you have an actual mini human liver in a bioreactor, takes several months.<\/p>\n
It will stay alive, or viable, for only a few days.<\/p>\n
But in that short time, the researchers can try different medicines to treat the diseased liver.<\/p>\n
You could test any sort of therapeutic by simply injecting this chemical through the system, says Dr. Collin.<\/p>\n
In the past, animal livers played a role in this kind of research but human livers didnt always respond in the same way.<\/p>\n
With this system, the cells have had genetic modification to recreate diseases, for example, fatty liver, a growing problem in the United States.<\/p>\n
This technology has the potential for personalized medicine. From your skin cells, they could grow your own mini liver to figure out which medicines would work for you.<\/p>\n
I believe its a very good biological tool to screen treatments that are not otherwise being tested in humans themselves because its dangerous, says Dr. Soto.<\/p>\n
As its designed, it would be a long stretch to create livers for transplantation.<\/p>\n
If you mean how far we are to make actual livers for people, I think we are very far away. Were probably many years away. But this is a good step, Dr. Soto says.<\/p>\n
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\nAfter 5 Years Of Trials, Doctors Create Human Liver From Scratch - CBS Pittsburgh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"