| News From Transplant Week of Sept. 9, 2001 / Vol. 2 No.36 |
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UK Researchers Develop Device to Help Patients Awaiting Liver Transplants |
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Researchers from the University of Strathclyde report they have created a system of sheets coated with pig-liver cells that can be used to clean human blood of patients waiting for a liver transplant. While similar devices have been used in trials in the U.S., lead researcher Dr. Helen Grant says the problem until now has been that liver cells survive for only one or two days in culture and do not divide. Grant said her team has found that by attaching the cells to a flat plate and supplying oxygen through tiny fibers attached to the other side, the cells can be kept alive and even frozen in liquid nitrogen at -70C. "It's embarrassingly simple, but it works very well," Dr Grant said. "We have shown that the cells survive for at least 28 days, and probably much longer, without losing viability." Grant told the British Association Science Festival in Glasgow that for some patients, the device "may offer patients a 'bridge' to transplantation. "For
others, it might buy enough time for the patient's own liver to
heal, making a transplant unnecessary," Grant said. "If
their livers could be allowed to rest during the acute phase of
their illness, then the cells could recover, if enough have survived." Other sources: UK Media |
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