A newly identified cell may be able to regenerate liver tissue

According to Public Health England,Water disease is a widespread and devastating disease. It is the fifth leading cause of premature death in the United Kingdom * and the third leading cause of premature death in the United Kingdom.

Liver tissue regenerating

Researchers from King & # 39; s College London may have found a solution to this disease. Scientists have used monocellular RNA sequencing to identify a cell type that can effectively regenerate liver tissue.

The result of this discovery would be that liver failure may soon be treated without the need for dangerous and risky transplants. The newly discovered cell is called a hepatobiliary hybrid progenitor (HHyP).

The cells form during our early development in the uterus, but also continue to exist in small amounts in the adult. These stem cell-like cells can develop into two main types of adult liver cells (hepatocytes and cholangiocytes).

"For the first time, we have discovered that cells with true stem cell-like properties may well exist in the human liver, which in turn could provide a wide range of applications for regenerative medicine to the treatment of cancer." liver diseases, including the possibility of circumventing the need for liver transplants, "said Dr. Tamir Rashid, senior author of the Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King & s College London.

In mice, scientists discovered that HHyPs resembled mouse stem cells that repair the liver of mice rapidly after injury. Until now, the liver graft was the only treatment for serious liver diseases.

This option is delicate and risky because the operation often leads to complications for life. There is also the fact that the need for donor organs far outweighs the increasing demands.

However, this new stem cell therapy could solve these problems by repairing the old liver or producing a new liver from the patient's cells.

Conversion of pluripotent stem cells to HHyPs

"Now we need to work quickly to find the recipe for converting pluripotent stem cells into HHyP, so that we can graft them at will on patients, and in the longer term we will also try to reprogram HHyPs in the body. "using traditional pharmacological drugs to repair diseased liver without cell or organ transplantation," said Dr. Rashid.

The article is published in the journal Nature Communications.