Improved survival of porcine acute liver failure by a bioartificial liver device implanted with induced human functional hepatocytes.

ABSTRACT: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a life-threatening illness. The extracorporeal cell-based bioartificial liver (BAL) system could bridge liver transplantation and facilitate liver regeneration for ALF patients by providing metabolic detoxification and synthetic functions. Previous BAL systems, based on hepatoma cells and non-human hepatocytes, achieved limited clinical advances, largely due to poor hepatic functions, cumbersome preparation or safety concerns of these cells. We previously generated human functional hepatocytes by lineage conversion (hiHeps). Here, by improving functional maturity of hiHeps and producing hiHeps at clinical scales (3 billion cells), we developed a hiHep-based BAL system (hiHep-BAL). In a porcine ALF model, hiHep-BAL treatment restored liver functions, corrected b

SUBMITTER: Shi XL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4746613 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature