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Life support of artificial liver: development of a bioartificial liver to treat liver failure
Author(s) -
Kobayashi Naoya
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of hepato‐biliary‐pancreatic surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1868-6982
pISSN - 0944-1166
DOI - 10.1007/s00534-008-0022-1
Subject(s) - bioartificial liver device , embryonic stem cell , economic shortage , artificial liver , human liver , stem cell , liver failure , tissue engineering , hepatic stellate cell , cell culture , cell therapy , medicine , liver cell , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , pathology , biomedical engineering , hepatocyte , biochemistry , in vitro , philosophy , linguistics , genetics , government (linguistics) , gene
In recent years there has been a particular focus on research regarding tissue engineering targeting the liver, especially in terms of what types of cells and extracellular matrices should be organized and in what type of environments to create an artificial liver, i.e., a life‐saving organ. The ideal is to use healthy human liver cells as a source of cells for such research, but there is an extreme shortage of human‐donor livers that can be used for cell isolation. Therefore, we are presently working on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into liver cells as well as reversibly immortalized human liver cell lines that can be cultured in large quantities and at low cost. We are also working on the development of a bioartificial liver (BAL) using such cells as a source. Herein, we introduce our findings on the current status of BAL development.