Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Community Corner
  • Published:

Assessing the potential of induced liver regeneration

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 1096–1097 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

George K Michalopoulos

Orthotopic liver transplantation is used extensively as a treatment for incurable liver disease. Given the disproportion between supply and demand for transplantable livers, transplantation of hepatocytes is often used an alternative method. Adult rodent and human hepatocytes are transplantable in rodent adipose tissue, where they become vascularized, survive for the life of the animal, contain bile ductules and slowly expand2. More recently, adult human hepatocytes transplanted into immunosuppressed mouse models of liver failure engrafted successfully and completely colonized the failing mouse liver3. Lymph nodes were also shown to be a suitable site for the growth of large numbers of adult hepatocytes that were capable of supporting liver function4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Takebe, T. et al. Vascularized and functional human liver from an iPSC-derived organ bud transplant. Nature doi:10.1038/nature12271 (3 July 2013).

  2. Jirtle, R.L., Biles, C. & Michalopoulos, G. Morphologic and histochemical analysis of hepatocytes transplanted into syngeneic hosts. Am. J. Pathol. 101, 115–126 (1980).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Strom, S.C., Davila, J. & Grompe, M. Chimeric mice with humanized liver: tools for the study of drug metabolism, excretion, and toxicity. Methods Mol. Biol. 640, 491–509 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hoppo, T., Komori, J., Manohar, R., Stolz, D.B. & Lagasse, E. Rescue of lethal hepatic failure by hepatized lymph nodes in mice. Gastroenterology 140, 656–666.e2 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Cayo, M.A. et al. JD induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes faithfully recapitulate the pathophysiology of familial hypercholesterolemia. Hepatology 56, 2163–2171 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ogawa, S. et al. Three-dimensional culture and cAMP signaling promote the maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes. Development 140, 3285–3296 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Espejel, S. et al. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes have the functional and proliferative capabilities needed for liver regeneration in mice. J. Clin. Invest. 120, 3120–3126 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kobayashi, T. et al. Generation of rat pancreas in mouse by interspecific blastocyst injection of pluripotent stem cells. Cell 142, 787–799 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Matsunari, H. et al. Blastocyst complementation generates exogenic pancreas in vivo in apancreatic cloned pigs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 4557–4562 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Theise, N.D. & Harris, R. Postmodern biology: (adult) (stem) cells are plastic, stochastic, complex, and uncertain. Handb. Exp. Pharmacol. 174, 389–408 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Theise, N.D. & Kafatos, M.C. Complementarity in biological systems. Complexity 18, 11–20 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Oregon Health and Science University and M.G. have a significant financial interest in Yecuris, a company that has a commercial interest in humanization of mouse liver. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Assessing the potential of induced liver regeneration. Nat Med 19, 1096–1097 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3325

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3325

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing