December 23, 2021
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group led by Hisanobu Higashi (a fourth-year student in the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Medicine), Senior Assistant Professor Hiroshi Yagi, and Professor Yuko Kitagawa of the Department of Surgery (General and Gastroenterological) at the Keio University School of Medicine has applied a technology called "decellularization," which extracts a bio-organ scaffold by leaving behind active ingredients such as collagen from an animal liver, to create the world's first human-applicable-sized bio-artificial liver and successfully transplanted it into an animal. This bio-artificial liver, which uses pig cells, was transplanted into a pig with liver failure, where it functioned for one month and demonstrated a therapeutic effect on the liver damage. Based on these results, the group plans to use human iPS cells and other technologies to complete a bio-artificial liver that can be transplanted into humans, aiming to realize organ regenerative medicine.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the international academic journal "American Journal of Transplantation" on December 22, 2021 (JST).
Please see below for the full press release.