An international team of researchers bioengineering human liver tissues uncovered previously unknown networks of genetic-molecular crosstalk that control the organ's developmental processes -- greatly advancing efforts to generate healthy and usable human liver tissue from human pluripotent stem cells

The scientists reported that their bioengineered human liver tissues still need additional rounds of molecular fine tuning before they can be tested in clinical trials.

The only current treatment for end-stage liver disease is a liver transplant, and the number of livers available from deceased donors is limited. Because of this, a major goal in regenerative medicine is to attain self-organizing human tissues -- in which cells experience a series of coordinated molecular events precisely timed and spaced to form functioning three-dimensional liver buds, the authors write.

Nailing down the precise details and context of developmental molecular-cellular crosstalk in the endoderm of an embryo -- where livers form -- is critical to this technology's therapeutic potential

For more details: - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170614133745.htm