It may be small, but is it perfectly formed? A tiny human liver, just 5 millimetres in size, has been grown inside a mouse. It remains to be seen whether the organ can replicate all liver functions and if it will be possible to scale up the tiny structure to useable dimensions. Hideki Taniguchi and Takanori Takebe at Yokohama City University generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin cells, then encouraged them to develop into liver precursor cells. They added two more types of cell mesenchymal cells, and endothelial cells from umbilical cord blood vessels. Without the aid of any underlying scaffold, the cells "guided themselves" and generated a microstructure almost identical to normal liver tissue, says Takebe. "We mixed and graded the cells onto the culture dish and they moved to form a cluster," he says. "It was a surprising outcome from what was, to be honest, an accident." The structure was then transplanted inside the skull of severe combined immunodeficiency mice, which would not mount an immune response to the tissue. Transplanting the structure here allowed the researchers to make use of the increased blood flow to the brain to encourage growth of the new tissue. Within … Continue reading →

It may be small, but is it perfectly formed? A tiny human liver, just 5 millimetres in size, has been grown inside a mouse. It remains to be seen whether the organ can replicate all liver functions and if it will be possible to scale up the tiny structure to useable dimensions. Hideki Taniguchi and Takanori Takebe at Yokohama City University generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin cells, then encouraged them to develop into liver precursor cells. They added two more types of cell mesenchymal cells, and endothelial cells from umbilical cord blood vessels. Without the aid of any underlying scaffold, the cells "guided themselves" and generated a microstructure almost identical to normal liver tissue, says Takebe. "We mixed and graded the cells onto the culture dish and they moved to form a cluster," he says. "It was a surprising outcome from what was, to be honest, an accident." The structure was then transplanted inside the skull of severe combined immunodeficiency mice, which would not mount an immune response to the tissue. Transplanting the structure here allowed the researchers to make use of the increased blood flow to the brain to encourage growth of the new tissue. Within … Continue reading →

The leading international family stem cell bank, Cryo-Save, celebrates the grand opening of its brand new headquarters office in Zutphen, the Netherlands, by honoring PhD. T.H.J. Nijhuis with the Young Investigator Award on June 22nd. Cryo-Save`s headquarters, located in Zutphen, the Netherlands, is celebrating the grand opening of its brand new, fully-renovated headquarters. On June 22nd, Arnoud van Tulder, CEO of Cryo-Save, and attorney-at-law C. Bieze, deputy in the province of Gelderland, will officially open the company`s new global headquarters office. To mark the occasion, the company will grant PhD. T.H.J. Nijhuis, winner of the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award, a prize of 5,000 euros. Mr. Nijhuis has focused his most recent research on umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and pursues his work at the Erasmus Medical Center, part of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Arnoud van Tulder, CEO of Cryo-Save, says "We are proud to name Mr. T.H.J. Nijhuis, as the winner of the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award. Research is a cornerstone of the stem cell industry, and it`s advancements like that of Mr. T.H.J. Nijhuis that makes us so optimistic for the future." As part of Cryo-Save`s educational and community outreach efforts, the Cryo-Save Young Investigator Award … Continue reading →

Scientists have promised a lot of regenerative medicine will come from stem cells, but so far progress has been fairly slow: they can stimualte regrowth of heart tissue, make incredibly expesnive artifical blood, orat bestconstruct a short piece of vein. Now, though, scientists are claiming they can grow functional liver. Nature reports that a team of scientists from Japan has presented its works at a conference, and it's incredible. In fact, George Daley, director of the stem-cell transplantation program at the Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts, told Nature that "it blew [his] mind." Wow. The researchers used stem cells created from human skin cells, then placed the cells on growth plates in a specially designed culture medium. Over the course of nine days, the cells started producing chemicals that a typical liver cell, otherwise known as a hepatocyte, would produce. They then added endothelial and mesenchymal cellswhich form parts of blood vessels and other structural tissues within the bodyto the mix, in the hope that they would be incorporated and begin to help the cells develop a structure akin to the liver. The result was amazing: two days later, the researchers found the cells assembled into a 5-millimeter-long, three-dimensional lump. … Continue reading →