遥科学家遥研制生物人工遥Chinese scientists have developed a new bioartificial liver that can help
liver failure patients survive long enough for an organ transplant.
遥科学家已研制出一套生物人工遥,该装置可以帮助遥功能衰竭病人在遥脏移植手术前存活足够长的时间。
Designed to be attached outside a patient s body, the bioartificial liver is
based on human liver cells, according to research findings published in the new
issue of international science magazine Cell Research on Friday.
In its first clinical use last week, the device saved a 61-year-old woman who
was dying from acute liver failure, said Prof. Ding Yitao, a member of the
research team, which comprised scientists from the Shanghai Institute for
Biological Sciences and doctors from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital.
They are planning more clinical tests in Shanghai and the neighboring cities
this year.
A bioartificial liver can help recover patients liver functions and prolong
their lives so they can wait for suitable donor livers for a transplant, which
is currently the only solution to critical cases.
Prof. Ding said Chinese researchers have been using artificial livers since
1998, and earlier devices used liver cells from pigs.
"The new device is based on cells taken from human skin, fat or other tissues
and reprogrammed into [liver] cells," he said. "It is safer and less likely to
cause a rejection reaction. "