Learn more about the possibility of turning stem cells into liver cells in this article.
In this article:
- What Are Human Liver Cells?
- Is the Liver Able to Regenerate Itself?
- How Do Stem Cells Turn into Liver Cells?
- What Is the Role of Stem Cells in Liver Repair?
- Use of Liver Cells in Drug Development and Discovery?
- Companies Specializing in Hepatocytes (Liver Cells)?
How Stem Cells Can Become Liver Cells
What is a stem cell? The simple definition of a stem cell is a type of undifferentiated cell that can replicate and become other cell types that form the human body. Do stem cells have the potential to become liver cells? Read on to learn the answer.
What Are Human Liver Cells?
The liver is one of the human organs that cleanse the body. It breaks down fat for further absorption and digestion and metabolizes drugs to make it easier for the body to use. It has 4 basic types of cells that control many key functions inside the liver.
- Hepatocyte
Hepatocytes dominate the cells in the liver at about 80%. It regulates cholesterol level and metabolizes or detoxifies fat. It also participates in the turnover of steroid hormones and turnover and transport of lipids.
- Hepatic Stellate Fat-Storing Cells (ITO Cells)
This liver cell keeps 80% of vitamin A supply and some other lipids in the body. It also multiplies in response to factors, such as platelet-derived growth factor.
- Kupffer Cells
Kupffer cells serve as antigen-presenting cells in the adaptive immunity and are specialized stellate macrophages. They also do the job of secreting chemokines and cytokines and expanding the pro-inflammatory cell population in the liver.
- Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells
These liver cells form the blood vessel walls, and a layer with spaces between each fenestra (a cell) for proper flow of essential materials in the blood. They are also packed with lysosomal enzymes for degrading the endocytosed material.
Is the Liver Able to Regenerate Itself?
If you are dealing with a diseased or damaged liver, an important first step can be to use non-invasive means, such as a blood draw, to do a complete liver assessment. With a focus on assisting those impacted by Covid-19, Fibronostics is one of the leading companies offering this type of assessment.
Why is this important? It’s important because the liver is one of the rare organs that can actually regenerate itself. It can replace its lost tissue through the growth of the remaining tissues. The liver can also regenerate after any chemical injury or surgical removal. It has the ability to regenerate itself back to its full size, even when 90% of it has been removed.
The liver cells function deals with the replication of themselves, primarily hepatocytes. Once this process is finished, the new cells undergo reformation of the extracellular matrix, angiogenesis, and restructuring to complete regeneration. While the regeneration of the liver is ongoing, its function is only partially affected.
How Do Stem Cells Turn into Liver Cells?
A study found new methods to generate liver cells using human stem cells, which can lead to ways of treating liver failure in the future. Right now, the most common and effective treatment for liver failure is the liver transplant. But, because of the lack of donor organs, many patients worldwide die while waiting for donors year after year.
In the study, researchers focused on using embryonic stem cells to generate liver cells. What they did is to understand how embryonic stem cells can turn into liver cells, which is an essential step for cell transplantation of the liver. Their method faced the major challenge of controlling the development of stem cells into liver cells.
The researchers in the study were then successful in transplanting cell-derived liver cells into mice with liver injuries. This shows that the ability of stem cell-derived liver cells to regenerate has the potential to sustain those suffering from liver failure while waiting for the availability of a donor. It’s a great solution to increase the survival rate of patients with liver conditions and decrease the burden of liver failure.
What Is the Role of Stem Cells in Liver Repair?
With stem cells as the tool to repair the damaged liver, they can go through various cycles of cell division while keeping an undifferentiated state. They also have the capacity to differentiate into specialized cells. Based on the study mentioned previously, they have the power to turn themselves into liver cells to resume the function of the liver cells in the body.
Although stem cells promise a future with liver repair, knowing the mechanisms of liver development is still an important aspect to fully understand how stem cells can be maximized in fixing the liver.
Use of Liver Cells in Drug Development and Discovery?
Human stem cells also offer exciting opportunities for high-throughput drug screening, because they can be differentiated into a wide range of cells types, including hepatocytes (liver cells), cardiomyocytes (heart cells), neurons (brain cells), and more.
Drug screening is the process by which potential drugs are identified and optimized before a candidate drug is selected to progress to clinical trials. It can involve screening large libraries of chemicals for a specific biological activity within high-throughput screening assays. Accurate prediction of human drug toxicity is an essential element of the drug discovery process, and hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity) is one of the most common causes of drug failure during preclinical testing.
Another major problem in drug development is variability among individual responses to therapeutic agents. Therefore, stem cells can be used to create patient-specific and disease-specific cell lines. This lets researchers test potential drug compounds without the need for controversial (and expensive) animal testing – that is, until substantial data is collected to indicate that it would be worthwhile.
In short, the ability to use human cell types in toxicology studies has the potential to increase the efficiency of novel drug development, while reducing drug attrition in the final stages of development and dropping costs. This wouldn’t be possible without stem cells to create differentiated cell types, such as liver cells.
Companies Specializing in Hepatocytes (Liver Cells)?
To support this approach, several global companies now develop, manufacture, and sell stem cell-derived hepatocytes for use in drug development applications. Research supply companies that offer these types of liver cells include Fujifilm, Sigma Aldrich, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Takara Bio, Lonza, R&D Systems, and many others.
According to market leader Fujifilm / CDI, the medical community needs a “reproducible, well-characterized, and readily available source” of human liver cells (hepatocytes) to:
- Advance the launch of new therapies
- Reduce the incidence of drug-induced liver injury
- Accelerate the development of new approaches to liver regeneration and transplantation
To learn what kind of diseases can be treated with stem cell therapy, watch the video below:
Turning stem cells into liver cells is an intriguing possibility. However, it needs substantially more research to support this approach and facilitate it as a treatment approach to liver failure.
Seeking a Stem Cell Treatment?
As the world’s largest publisher of stem cell industry news, BioInformant understandably cannot provide clinical treatments or advice. For this reason, please contact GIOSTAR with your medical questions. GIOSTAR is a global stem cell company that has treated a large number of patients, both in the U.S. and worldwide.
You can reach them at this link to schedule a consultation or ask them your questions.
