メディエイゴ

A team led by researchers(1) from the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a technique that someday may allow growth of transplantable(2) replacement(3) livers(4). In their report that will be published in Nature Medicine and is receiving early online release(5), the investigators(6) describe using the structural(7) tissue(8) of rat(9) livers as scaffolding(10) for the growth of tissue regenerated(11) from liver cells(12) introduced(13) through a novel reseeding process(14).

"Having the detailed(15) microvasculature(16) of the liver within a biocompatible(17), natural scaffold(18) is a major advantage to growing liver tissue in a synthetic(19) environment," says Basak Uygun, PhD(20), research associate(21) at the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine (MGH-CEM) and the paper's lead author(22). "Our technique of 'decellularizing(23)’ organs(24) leaves the vascular system(25) intact(26), which facilitates(27) repopulation(28) of the structural matrix(29) and the subsequent(30) survival(31) and function of the introduced liver cells."

Liver transplantation(32) is the only effective treatment for liver failure(33) but is greatly limited by the shortage of donor organs(34). Each year 4,000 individuals who might have survived with a liver transplant(35) die in the U.S. The shortage of donor livers and other organs is a major force behind(36) the emerging(37) field of tissue engineering(38) and regenerative medicine(39). Efforts to build tissues from the ground up(40) have not yet approached the goal of transplantable replacement organs, and replacing the liver -- in which each cell is a metabolic(41) factory requiring constant, direct contact with the vascular system -- has been particularly challenging(42).