We are delighted to be able to provide a further update on last the 2/3 month’s work which has brought about a significant breakthrough in the research programme that LAPR&D is funding.  The research project aims to prove that it is possible to take liver cells out of the body and get them to survive and grow.  We reported previously that the research began with animal samples.  It has now progressed to human cells with 90 samples taken from 103 patients who have liver disease.  The research is now concentrating on how to sustain human liver cells outside of the body in the laboratory.  
 
The 2  fourth year medical student researchers, funded by LAPR&D, have studied what make the cells grow and what happens to the DNA/nucleus of the cell.  They have conducted 97 experiments to date and have now progressed onto working with stem cells.  They have confirmed that by adding an epidermal growth factor (EGF) and small protein (VIP, Vaso-Intestinal peptide) improves the survival rate of the liver cells and stem cells have been isolated.  This  is important as they are essential for the future production of the liver. 
 
The results are to be published in Faculty of Medical Annual Conference and Hepatology (Journal of AASLD, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases) 
 
Future plans are to study how to transform stem cells into a functioning liver; grow the liver as a 3D functioning organ where the cells aggregate together and stay together and to inject human stem cells into the liver of a live mouse to see if they survive/grow.

This is the end of the first year of LAPR&D research into stem cells.  As  a result of this tremendous progress we are extending our research programme funding for a further 2 years.  If you wish to donate to ensure this research continues please visit the "Donate" section on our homepage

April 2016

Current work:

In the last three months, we have explored the liver cell growth process at gene level  to determine if there are genes associated with pancreatic cancer.  Liver cells were taken from liver tissue obtained from patients undergoing liver surgery.  Since our exciting start, we have recruited 26 patients and 24 liver specimens were processed in the last three months.

The effects of the chosen growth factors on human liver cells have been studied. Changes to genes related to growth and proliferation were tested. Exposure of liver cells to certain agents, such as hormones, causes generation of certain nucleic acids (RNA) which stimulate the production of protein and cell growth which will assist our efforts to grow a liver outside of the body successfully.  RNA was extracted from the cells and alteration of the gene structure was tested using different laboratory methods to  monitor the increase in multiplication of nucleic material (DNA).  We found that factors under study had a positive effect on genes involved in growth and proliferation processes of liver cells.

The impact of these growth factors on the functionality of liver cells was a concern in our study.  The ability of liver cells to produce or break down certain products had been investigated using various experimental procedures.  We found the liver cell functions such as production of albumin are variably affected by those growth factors.  The use of these factors on liver cells was found to be safe with no toxic effects.

In separate experiments, work is trying to isolate human liver stem cells.  We have made good progress in understanding the liver stem cell environment and we are able to identify factors that are essential for growth and maintenance of liver stem cell in a culture dish.

In November 2015, Mr Abu Hilal was invited to present some of our results at the international scientific society conference in Jordan.

Over the next three months, the work will focus on:

• Mechanisms that cause the variability in response to growth improving agents.
• Optimization of the liver stem cultural model using the development knowledge of 2D and 3D techniques.
• Identification and characterisation of various stem cell types.
• In bioengineering experiment, we plan to study how liver cells behave and survive under the effect of ultrasonic waves