Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Miniature Human Livers Grown In Lab

Posted by Soulskill on from the less-filling-tastes-great dept.

Zothecula writes "In the quest to grow replacement human organs in the lab, livers are no doubt at the top of many a barfly's wish list. With its wide range of functions that support almost every organ in the body and no way to compensate for the absence of liver function, the ability to grow a replacement is also the focus of many research efforts. Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to successfully engineer miniature livers in the lab using human liver cells."

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Miniature drinks? by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "So if they make me a miniature liver, does that mean I can only drink those little 8oz beers?"

    I don't think so..either you plug a bunch of them together for form normal function. Or, perhaps, all the growth hormones we injest from our food would help make it grow to full size once implanted.

    It must work, I mean...have you see the tits on young girls these days?!?!? They sure didn't have them like that when I was young. I'm talking grade school young too...ouch! Glad I'm not the father to one and have to keep the boys off them.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. How much liver do we need to make a difference? by Guppy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, it looks like these mini livers put us just slightly under two orders of magnitude in size away before getting sufficient capacity to sustain a human (at the mentioned minimum of 30% normal function).

    Or does it? in many cases, liver disease is the result of a chronic and slow destruction that does not remove all capacity at a stroke; rather, the person slowly loses capacity until at some point it becomes insufficient to sustain life.

    I am hoping a partial transplant of even a micro-sized lobe might be sufficient to bump them back up to capacity. If we can get a big enough liver-oid to provide a few years function, that might be enough for an elderly patient to live out the rest of their normal life-span (or at least normal "health-span").

    1. Re:How much liver do we need to make a difference? by icegreentea · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There have been cases where people badly in need of a liver transplant due to failure have been put on artificial livers that took enough load off the livers/bought the patient enough time that their livers regenerated themselves completely. No need for transplant!