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Hepatic Tissue Engineering Liver Disease The most diverse human organ, the liver, is responsible for much of metabolism, detoxification of foreign compounds, production of bile for digestion, and secretion of many serum proteins. Failure of this organ is the cause of death of over 30,000 patients in the US each year and transient decompensation of liver function is responsible for over 300,000 annual hospital admissions. Therapy for liver failure is currently largely supportive (fluids and intensive monitoring), thus many researchers have examined alternative approaches to the treatment of liver disease. Since many liver functions are important for survival, the use of cell-based therapies to replace a full complement of liver functions has gained in popularity. Three main approaches have been taken by the scientific community: transplantation of liver cells by injection into the blood stream, development of liver tissue substitutes for implantation, and extracorporeal circuits which house live cells to 'process' the patient's blood. A common limitation to all these approaches is the difficulty in maintaining liver-specific function of isolated cells.
A Look at the Liver Architecture Indeed, the architecture of the liver in vivo is quite complex and precisely defined. Within the liver acinus, the functional unit of the liver, hepatocytes interact with other hepatocytes, a fenestrated endothelium, stellate (Ito) cells, extracellular matrix, and the blood stream. Upon disruption of this architecture, the level of liver-specific functions in isolated hepatocytes decline rapidly.
Research Interests
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