New hope in liver failure treatment

Last Modified: 26 Sep 2007
Source: PA News

Scientists have found a new way of treating liver failure which helps the organ regenerate and can eliminate the need for a transplant, according to a study published.

Researchers in the US treated liver failure in animals by manipulating the immune response, a technique they believe could also be used on humans.

The method might be able to keep patients alive long enough for donor organs to become available, or allow the liver to regenerate so that a transplant is no longer needed.

If this worked, it would be a huge leap forward in the treatment of end-stage liver failure, which at the moment can only be solved by transplantation.

The research was carried out at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr Martin Yarmush, senior author of the study, which is published in the PLoS One journal, said: "We have identified a non-hepatic source of cells that can easily be expanded to the scale required for clinical application."

The liver is one of the few major organs able to regenerate itself. However, the inflammation caused by alcoholism or diseases such as chronic hepatitis can suppress this natural regeneration process and increase cell death.

The only current treatment when the liver reaches this stage is transplantation but researchers decided to test whether stem cells could be used to treat organ failure instead.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) - cells from the bone marrow that develop into tissues supporting blood cell development in the marrow cavity - were used. To test their ability to treat organ failure involving inflammatory activity, the scientists examined various ways of using the cells to treat rats with liver damage.

Exactly how the MSC-produced molecules inhibit the movement of immune cells into a damaged organ is not yet known and is being examined.

The researchers also now plan to test whether MSCs have the potential to treat other immunological diseases.

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