To survive until transplantation
Scientists have turned stem cells into liver cells and successfully transplanted them to an infant for the first time
Sofia Jabotinskaya, Naked Science
Japanese doctors from the National Center for Child Health and Development performed the first successful operation of its kind to transplant liver cells derived from embryonic stem cells to a newborn.
According to the medical portal Medicalexpress, a child born in October 2019, suffered from a violation of the urea cycle, in which toxic ammonia accumulates in the liver. Doctors could not perform liver transplantation: the patient was too small for such an intervention. Transplantation of this organ is usually done no earlier than the child reaches 13 months and if his weight is at least six kilograms.
But it was also impossible to leave the baby without medical care. Doctors used supportive therapy, which would allow the child to live up to the moment when he could get a new liver.
About 190 million hepatocytes (liver cells) obtained from embryonic stem cells were transplanted to a tiny patient on the sixth day of his life. Thanks to this, the child's condition returned to normal, the concentration of ammonia in his body decreased – and he was able to wait for a full-fledged liver transplant operation, which took place in March this year. The patient's father became a liver donor.
"The success of this trial confirms the safety of [the applied method] in the world's first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells in patients with liver diseases," say the staff of the institute where the therapy was conducted. The National Center for Child Health and Development is one of two organizations in Japan that has a permit to work with embryonic stem cells to create new treatments.
The specialists of the institution decided to continue testing their method in order to use it as often as possible in the future. The introduction of stem cell therapy into medical practice will save the lives of many children with dysfunctional liver.
Earlier, scientists from Osaka University conducted for the first time a partial transplantation of heart muscles grown in the laboratory. This procedure will reduce the number of complete heart transplants.
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