World’s First Artificial Human Liver Grown in Lab (October 31, 2006)

This article, published three years ago in October 2006, reveals that two British scientists were able to grow the world’s first artificial liver from stem cells. Using blood taken from babies’ umbilical cords just minutes after birth, the scientists were able to create tissue the size of a small coin that replicates the functions of a liver.

This scientific breakthrough can lead to significant benefits for humanity within the next several years. The article states that within two years the mini liver can be used to test new drugs, reducing the number of animal experiments and providing results based on a human rather than an animal liver. Within five years, pieces of the artificial liver could be used to repair livers damaged by injury, disease, and alcohol abuse. And in fifteen years' time, whole functioning livers could be grown in the lab and then be transplanted into the body.

This experiment could be seen as an excellent advancement in the field of tissue engineering. It’s great to see that within the next couple of years, an the artificial liver created in the lab could be used to directly benefits people’s health. Having this work be transferred from the lab to the operating table would result in significant health benefits for those suffering from a failing kidney.

This experiment has also proven groundbreaking proof that stem cell research can be done in a more ethically acceptable manner. It’s great to see an experiment that could be beneficial to the eventual reduction of human suffering without all the politically motivated debates that sometimes hinder great discoveries. If scientists are able to derive stem cells from umbilical cords, then more stem cell research should be conducted using this source. Tissue engineering and stem cell research are amazing scientific and medical breakthroughs. Omitting the constant ethical debate surrounding stem cell research, by utilizing the daily discard of millions of umbilical cords, could result in the implementation of such research in our health care system.

-Andrea

Bill Christensen, Live Science, 10/31/06
http://www.livescience.com/health/061031_artif_liver.html