科學(xué)家用實驗培育出一個小肝臟,。這對那些急需移植肝臟的患者來說,，無疑是個好消息,。
這項技術(shù)有朝一日可能用于修補不健全和受損的器官，解除等候移植的煩惱,，有些病人甚至到死也沒有等來供體,。這個人造組織還可能用于試驗新藥，防止“象人”藥物試驗等不幸事件的發(fā)生,。用同樣的技術(shù)還可能培育出新的腎臟,、肺和胰腺等,。這項研究依然處在一個非常早期的階段，但英國專家把它描述為“向前邁進一大步”,，同時認(rèn)為它對器官移植的替代選擇提出“真正承諾”,。
研究人員在一個盤子里用3種在人體胚胎中生成肝臟的細(xì)胞培育出一小塊組織，然后把它移植到一只老鼠的大腦上,。它在這里獲得足夠的血液供應(yīng),，要至少2個月才能成長起來。這個人造組織擁有許多人類肝臟的特點,，例如分解藥物的能力等,。實驗中這個人造組織還延長了患有致命肝病的老鼠生命。這些科學(xué)家之所以選擇大腦進行實驗,，是因為他們可把這塊肝臟比較容易地固定在大腦上,，同時便于進行觀察。但對于人類患者來說,，這些肝片事實上會用于修補肝臟,。對人進行的試驗最早有望在10年內(nèi)進行。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦英文摘要：
Nature doi:10.1038/nature12271
Vascularized and functional human liver from an iPSC-derived organ bud transplant
Takanori Takebe, Keisuke Sekine,Masahiro Enomura, Hiroyuki Koike,Masaki Kimura, Takunori Ogaeri,Ran-Ran Zhang,Yasuharu Ueno,Yun-Wen Zheng, Naoto Koike,Shinsuke Aoyama, Yasuhisa Adachi & Hideki Taniguchi
A critical shortage of donor organs for treating end-stage organ failure highlights the urgent need for generating organs from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Despite many reports describing functional cell differentiation, no studies have succeeded in generating a three-dimensional vascularized organ such as liver. Here we show the generation of vascularized and functional human liver from human iPSCs by transplantation of liver buds created in vitro (iPSC-LBs). Specified hepatic cells (immature endodermal cells destined to track the hepatic cell fate) self-organized into three-dimensional iPSC-LBs by recapitulating organogenetic interactions between endothelial and mesenchymal cells. Immunostaining and gene-expression analyses revealed a resemblance between in vitro grown iPSC-LBs and in vivo liver buds. Human vasculatures in iPSC-LB transplants became functional by connecting to the host vessels within 48?hours. The formation of functional vasculatures stimulated the maturation of iPSC-LBs into tissue resembling the adult liver. Highly metabolic iPSC-derived tissue performed liver-specific functions such as protein production and human-specific drug metabolism without recipient liver replacement. Furthermore, mesenteric transplantation of iPSC-LBs rescued the drug-induced lethal liver failure model. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the generation of a functional human organ from pluripotent stem cells. Although efforts must ensue to translate these techniques to treatments for patients, this proof-of-concept demonstration of organ-bud transplantation provides a promising new approach to study regenerative medicine.
