Japanese researchers report on liver transplantation studies using animal and iPS cells
Monday, October 18, 2010 - 15:00
in Health & Medicine
Two research teams from the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine (Okayama, Japan) have reported breakthrough studies in liver cell transplantation. One team found that the technical breakthrough in creating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from mouse somatic cells (nonsex cells) in vitro had "implications for overcoming immunological rejection." Whereas a second team using liver cell xenotransplantation - transplanting cells of one species into another (in this case transplanting pig liver cells into mice) - found that transplanted liver cells from widely divergent species can function to correct acute liver failure and prolong survival.