Stem Cell Therapy

What is Chronic Liver Disease?:

Chronic Liver Disease (CLD), also called Cirrhosis of the liver, is a disease in the liver that takes place over a long period of time. When continuous damage is administered to the liver over many years, scar tissue can develop instead of normal, healthy liver tissue. This slows and blocks the flow of blood to the liver, preventing it from functioning properly. If the disease has been allowed to progress far enough, the liver will fail entirely, resulting in many complications that will lead to death if a solution is not found.

Cirrhosis damage can sometimes be reversed or delayed if the root cause is removed or treated, such as the discontinuation of future alcohol consumption, or antiviral treatment. 

After a certain point, the damage done becomes irreparable and an organ transplant is the only option available.

 

Application:

Researchers have successfully grown liver cells in laboratories from embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. They have also been able to grow actual livers in laboratories, and while these livers are not completely whole, they have worked when transplanted into mice.

This offers hope for patients who need liver transplants, since lab grown organs may be the answer to a lack of donors and usable organs. Since these organs could also be grown from a patients own cells, it would remove the challenge of taking lifelong immunosuppressants after the transplant to prevent the new organ from being incompatible with the recipients' immune system.