Washington (PTI): Scientists in Japan claim to have developed a rudimentary human liver and a precursor of a human eyeball in the lab using stem cells. It could be a boon for the future organ replacement they said. At Yokohama City University in Japan, a team led by stem cell biologist Takanori Takebe grew a small, rudimentary liver using a recipe of just three types of cells. The trick was figuring out when to introduce each element into the mix of cells: "It took over a year and hundreds of trials," LiveScience quoted Takebe as telling journal Nature. First, the team placed genetically reprogrammed human skin cells, called "induced pluripotent stem cells," on growth plates in a specially designed chemical bath. After nine days, the cells began developing into hepatocytes, or liver cells. At that point, the researchers added cells taken from an umbilical cord, which would develop into the lining of blood vessels, and cells from bone marrow that can differentiate into bone, cartilage or fat. Two days later, the cell assortment had self-organised to form a three-dimensional "liver bud" a 5mm-wide chunk of tissue that performed basic liver functions.Source: The Hans India
