Adult Stem Cell Research Provides Promise for Treating Liver Damage

Today's article focuses on the research being done at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Here, scientists have made significant progress towards learning how to repair severely damaged human livers with stem cells.

A team of UW researchers for the first time isolated liver stem cells from human fetuses, grew them in the laboratory for months and infused them in laboratory mice, where they replaced thousands of dead liver cells.

If the experimental work continues successfully in the years to come, the technique could one day repair livers badly damaged by drug overdoses, hepatitis and alcoholism.

The technique uses stem cells from aborted fetuses, so money for the research isn't covered by the ban on federal funding for work using stem cells taken from embryos. It's also important to note that the fetuses that were used were donated to researchers.

The team also was able to manipulate the stem cells with special laboratory cultures to become cells of the bile duct, cartilage, fat, bone and blood vessels. Such cells someday also might have the potential to repair damaged tissue.

Read the full article which details the methods used and includes opinion and comment from researchers & critics in this Seattle Times article.