Scientists in China have developed a new bioartificial liver that can help patients with liver failure survive long enough for an organ transplant.
Based on human liver cells, the bioartificial liver has been designed to be attached outside a patient's body. The research finding by the Chinese scientists was published in the new issue of international science magazine, Cell Research in mid of January 2016.
As per the reports, the device, in its first clinical use in January, saved a 61-year-old woman who was dying from acute liver failure. The operation was performed by the scientists from the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences and doctors from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital.
A bioartificial liver can help recover patients' liver functions and prolong their lives so they can wait for suitable donor livers for a transplant, says the study. Also, this is currently the only solution to critical cases.
The new device known as bioartificial liver is based on cells taken from human skin, fat or other tissues and reprogrammed into the liver cells. It was also revealed that the device using human cells is safer and less likely to cause a rejection reaction. Earlier, scientists and researchers in China have been using such devices based on liver cells from pigs, quoted one of the professors from the team.
The first bioartificial liver device was developed by a US doctor, Kenneth Matsumara and was named an invention of the year by Time magazine in 2001. Liver cells obtained from an animal were used instead of developing a piece of equipment for each function of the liver.
No comments:
Post a Comment