Step taken closer to creating personalised organs
29 Jan 2016 by Evoluted New Media
MIT researchers have developed a new way to programme human stem cells to produce specific tissue types on demand.
MIT researchers have developed a new way to programme human stem cells to produce specific tissue types on demand.
It is hoped this could possibly eliminate the lengthy wait that people often undergo before receiving transplants.
Professor Ron Weiss, who led the research, said: “Imagine there is a patient with liver complications. We could take skin cells from that person and convert them into stem cells, genetically program them to make the liver tissue, and transplant that into the patient.”
This method could also reduce the risk of a patient’s immune system rejecting the transplant, as the cells would be the patient’s own.
This technique was developed during research to see if stem cells could produce pancreatic beta cells to treat diabetics.
Human induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells – which had been generated from adult skin cells – were converted into endoderm, one of the three germ layers – mesoderm and ectoderm are the others - which contribute to almost all cell types in the body.
The researchers used a molecule called dox to cause the IPS cells to express GATA6. This protein converts IPS cells into endoderm. However researchers left these newly transformed cells alone and found that endoderm and mesoderm – some was present in the cell culture – had matured to form a liver bud.
Patrick Guye, laboratory head at Sanofi-Aventis in Germany, said: “We observed the development of many cells types found in the foetal liver, including the development of blood vessel-like networks, various mesenchymal precursors, and the formation of early red and white blood cells within our liver-like tissue.
“This is especially exciting, as the process looks very similar if not identical to what is happening in the early liver bud in vivo, that is, in our own development.”
Cells that expressed less GATA6 were found to form ectoderm instead of endoderm and then further matured to form early telencephalon, or forebrain.
Weiss said this research could be used immediately to grow different human tissue on which to test new drugs.
“If you are not sure whether you will have complications from taking a particular drug, then before you take it you could try it out on your own liver-on-a-chip,” he said.
The research was published in Nature Communications.
