Scientists from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and London’s Imperial College of Medicine and Royal Free Hospital are studying the possible of stimulating liver regeneration using cells from the patient’s own bone marrow.

ICRF’S Histopathology unit analyzed cells from female patients who had received a bone-marrow transplant from a male donor. Liver cells from male patients who had received whole livers from female donors were also analyzed. Using a special deoxyribonucleic (DNA) probe that identifies male cells, the scientists checked patients’ livers. Presence  of male liver cell in female patients indicated that the male bone-marrow stem cells in a female -populated liver confirmed that liver repopulation had indeed taken place from male bone-marrow cells.

According to professor Nick Wright of the histopathology unit, liver regeneration from bone marrow would be particularly useful in patients whose livers had been damaged due to drug side-effects or through surgery to remove cancers that had spread and where there was insufficient functioning liver tissues remaining.One could also envisage that livers, which are defective in some way, perhaps because of a faulty gene, could be corrected using bone marrow stem cells that have been given a working gene.

“Ultimately, it may be possible to regenerate a new liver using the patient’s own stem cells. In doing so, one would avoid the problem encountered with current liver transplants where the patient’s body rejects the foreign organ, he said.