Liver cells have been created in the laboratory for the first time by scientists using reprogrammed cells from human skin, potentially enabling the way for the development of new treatments for liver diseases that kill thousands each year.
Embryonic stem cells are seen as the most powerful type of cells but are controversial due to being harvested from human embryos when they are just a few days old.
“This technology bypasses the need for using human embryos,” said Tamir Rashid of Cambridge’s laboratory for regenerative medicine, who led the study. “The cells we created were just as good as if we had used embryonic stem cells”.
Liver disease ranks as number five in the top causes of death in developed nations after cardiovascular, cancer, stroke, and respiratory diseases.
It accounts for almost 25,000 deaths a year in the USA and experts say that in the UK, liver disease death rates among young and middle-aged people are increasing at between 8 to 10 percent annually.
Rashid said that scientists have so far never been able to grow liver cells in a lab, despite 40 years of trying, making it very difficult to conduct proper research into liver disorders.
Alternatives are needed urgently due to a shortage of donor liver organs, he added.
This study increases the chances that alternatives can be found, either by developing new drugs or by using cell-based therapy, whereby cells from patients afflicted with genetic diseases are “cured” and transplanted back.
Liver diseases can be caused by alcohol abuse or infections such as hepatitis, or inherited.
