August 25, 2010

Applying stem cell technology to liver diseases

Public release date: 25-Aug-2010

Contact: Karen Honey
press_releases@the-jci.org
734-546-5242
Journal of Clinical Investigation

Great excitement greeted the discovery a few years ago that certain cells from mice and humans could be reprogrammed to become inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), as they hold promise for cell replacement therapy and modeling human disease. Two independent research groups — one led by Ludovic Vallier, at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and the other led by Holger Willenbring, at the University of California San Francisco — have now shown that both possibilities are true for iPS cell–derived liver cells known as hepatocytes.

In the first study, Vallier and colleagues generated iPS cells from patients with various inherited diseases of the liver. These cells were then cultured in a defined way to generate hepatocytes, which were found to recapitulate key features of the diseases affecting the patients from which they were derived. While this study indicates that iPS cells can be used to model diseases of the liver, Willenbring and colleagues showed that iPS cell–derived hepatocytes have both the functional and proliferative capabilities needed for liver regeneration in mice. In an accompanying commentary, Linda Greenbaum, at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, describes how these studies have extended our understanding of the potential for iPS cells to be used for cell replacement therapy and modeling human disease.

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TITLE: Induced pluripotent stem cell–derived hepatocytes have the functional and proliferative capabilities needed for liver regeneration in mice

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Holger Willenbring
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Phone: 415.476.2417; Fax: 415.514.2346; E-mail: willenbringh@stemcell.ucsf.edu.

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/43267?key=3a682a87848af072f6bc

ACCOMPANYING ARTICLE

TITLE: Modeling inherited metabolic disorders of the liver using human induced pluripotent stem cells

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Ludovic Vallier
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Phone: 44.1223.747489; Fax: 44.1223.763350; E-mail: lv225@cam.ac.uk.

S. Tamir Rashid
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Phone: 44.1223.747489; Fax: 44.1223.763350; E-mail: str29@cam.ac.uk.

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/43122?key=834cc7f6d8b865c5ba88

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY

TITLE: From skin cells to hepatocytes: advances in application of iPS cell technology

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Linda E. Greenbaum
Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Phone: 215.503.6345; Fax: 215.503.6282; E-mail: Linda.greenbaum@jefferson.edu.

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/44422?key=514b3b37b543850064a2

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