WASHINGTON, D.C.-New findings in rodents have prompted hope for their eventual use to prolong the lives of patients waiting for liver transplants or even eliminate the need for a transplant. Both reports were published on February 18 in Science.
In the first report, Karl L. Rudolph of Harvard Medical School and colleagues studied mice with abnormally short telomeres, which are especially prone to develop liver cirrhosis when the liver is injured (2000;287:1253-1258). The authors alleviated cirrhotic pathology and improved liver function in the mice by using gene therapy to halt the loss of telomeres.
In the second report, authors Naoya Kobayashi of Okayama University Medical School in Japan, Philippe Leboulch of Harvard Medical School, and others were able to grow enough hepatocytes in vivo to alleviate acute liver failure when the hepatocytes were transplanted into the spleen of rats that were under transient immunosuppression (2000;287:1258-1262). The authors said that although transplantation of hepatocytes "has been proposed for the temporary metabolic support of patients awaiting liver transplantation or spontaneous reversion of their liver disease," investigators have found it difficult to isolate an adequate number of transplantable hepatocytes.
Both groups of authors have expressed hope that their findings may some day be able to help patients with liver disease. However, in a news article in the same issue of Science, writer Michael Hagmann warned that "because both techniques involve potentially carcinogenic manipulations of the liver cells, researchers caution that much more work will be needed to determine whether they are safe for humans" (2000;287:1185-1187).
Please be aware that medical advice, diagnoses and physician references cannot be obtained from this site.