If drink or disease destroy your liver, just grow a new one
By Michael Day, Martyn Halle and Katharine Houreld
(Filed: 14/11/2004)
Patients whose livers are destroyed by alcohol or infection could grow a new organ using their own stem cells after a breakthrough by British scientists.
At present the demand for new livers outweighs the number provided by donors by 10 to one, a figure that transplant specialists expect to increase. The former footballer and alcoholic George Best caused controversy in 2002 when he received a liver transplant and then continued drinking.
Stem cells can help grow a new liver
Now researchers at London's Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College are about to begin trials that could enable patients to rebuild livers inside their own bodies within five years.
The first human tests of the method, which involves injecting stem cells to regenerate diseased livers, will begin before Christmas.
Nagy Habib, a professor of heptobiliary surgery at Imperial College, who is leading the research, said: "This could be the big breakthrough we have been looking for. We desperately need something in addition to transplantation.
"With kidney failure you can keep a patient on dialysis for years, but that is not possible with liver disease patients. Eventually their liver failure will worsen and they will need a transplant."
Prof Habib will treat 15 patients initially to prove that personal stem cell treatment is safe.
It involves taking blood from a patient suffering from liver failure and separating it into its component parts.
The stem cells are separated from the white blood cells, before the red blood cells are returned to the body.
The stem cells are exposed to liver growth factors, which it is believed will precipitate their metamorphosis into liver cells. They are then injected into the liver.
Prof Habib believes that the stem cells will then multiply and colonise the liver to such an extent that the organ will began functioning properly again. Effectively, he said, the patient would be growing a new liver.
Prof Habib said that he was optimistic about stem cell therapy. "The beauty about personal stem cells is they are easily obtainable and there aren't the issues of immune rejection which you can get with donor cells."
Patients with liver failure caused by alcohol abuse could be key beneficiaries. According to UK Transplant, 258 of the 686 people who received liver transplants in 2003/4 had cirrhosis, a disease associated with heavy drinking. Of the 244 people awaiting transplants, 148 had cirrhosis as their primary liver disease.
Victims of viral hepatitis or other liver diseases could also benefit if the treatment proves effective.
Tracy Scrivin, 40, a mother of two from Dyrham in Wiltshire, was six weeks away from death when she had a liver transplant after a serious liver infection in 2002. She welcomed the prospect of stem cell treatments for liver failure.
"I'd be in favour of any technique that could minimise the physical pain and the mental trauma of the patient," she said.
"After the operation, I had a tube running out of my liver and into a bag for three months. It wasn't so much the physical recovery, although that was tough. I am always very aware of having someone else's liver inside me. Psychologically, that's hard."
Prof Habib said that he hoped that future patients might be spared a similar ordeal.
"We are several years away yet before we can bring on this treatment, but I think its chances of working are good," he said. "If all goes well we could see stem cells being used to reverse liver failure in about five years."
George Best, the former Manchester United footballer, has suffered a series of health problems after years of heavy drinking.
Best, 58, collapsed four years ago with cirrhosis of the liver, and in 2002, he underwent 10 hours of surgery to have a liver transplant.
He is currently living at the Forst Mere health spa in Liphook, Hampshire. He has admitted to drinking since the transplant, even though his doctors told him that any more alcohol might kill him.
[此贴子已经被作者于2004-11-15 22:09:57编辑过] | 
发表于 2004-11-16 12:05
