Lessening liver damage
Harvard stem cell scientists studying the effect of nitric oxide on liver growth and regeneration appear to have serendipitously discovered a markedly improved treatment for liver damage caused by acetaminophen toxicity, the root of half of the hospital visits involving acute liver failure in the United States. The human liver can safely process up to 4 grams (8 pills) of acetaminophen, best known as Tylenol, over 24 hours. Surpassing that amount risks poisoning or killing liver cells. Accidental acetaminophen overdoses commonly occur when people who feel sick but don’t know the dangers posed by the over-the-counter pain and fever reducer exceed the safe dosage. Such poisoning kills hundreds of people each year. Writing in the journal Cell Reports, the researchers described how nitric oxide, which is commonly used to relax cardiac blood vessels in patients with heart disease, enhances liver growth and regeneration, independent of its effect on blood vessels. Using zebrafish...