| Theme |
Acute Liver Failure and Regenerative Medicine of the Liver |
| Title |
Extracorporeal Bioartificial Liver Support System for Treatment of Fatal Hepatic Encephalopathy |
| Author |
Tomokazu Matsuura |
Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Takamasa Iwaki |
Laboratory Animal Facilities, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Naofumi Kimura |
Department of Pharmacology, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| [ Summary ] |
An extracorporeal bioartificial liver consists of liver cells and abioreactor. Recently, developments in bioreactor and normal cells research, to produce bioartificial livers have advanced rapidly and reached the level of practical use. In addition, from the results of case control studies and cohort studies concerning clinical applications for artificial livers, artificial livers have been determined to be useful for improving treatments for hepaticenc ephalopathy. We aimed to develop an extracorporeal bioartificial liver (BAL) that could prevent death from hepaticenc ephalopathy in case of acute hepatic insufficiency. A functional human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (FLC-4) was cultured in a radial-flow bioreactor (RFB). The functionality of the BAL was tested in mini-pigs with acute hepatic failure, induced by a-amanitin and lipopolysaccaride. When the BAL system was connected to cultured FLC-4 in three pigs with hepatic dysfunction, all demonstrated electroencephalographic (EEG) improvement and survived. BAL therapy can prevent irreversible brain damage from hepatic encephalopathy in experimental acute hepatic failure. It is necessary to examine how we evaluate bioartificial liver support as an adjuvant therapy in over all hepatic dysfunction treatment. |