THREE babies with life-threatening liver conditions have been saved by pioneering injections of healthy liver cells from donors. Doctors hope the method will work for adults, too.
鈥淭he first step is very much making it work in children,鈥� says Nigel Heaton, one of the liver surgeons at King鈥檚 College Hospital in London who developed the procedure. 鈥淚f we can do that, it becomes a viable treatment which we could take forward in adults.鈥�
The three babies all had malfunctioning livers because of rare inherited disorders. To treat them, Anil Dhawan鈥檚 team injected liver cells called hepatocytes into the portal vein leading to the liver. The healthy cells colonised the diseased livers, providing the essential functions the babies needed. All are now flourishing. 鈥淚t鈥檚 succeeded way beyond what we initially expected,鈥� says Heaton.
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The procedure takes just half an hour and is far less risky than a whole-organ transplant. And more healthy cells can be added later if needed. The only drawback is that, like patients given organ transplants, the babies might have to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives.
Although the procedure is unlikely to replace whole-organ transplants in adults with severe liver disease, it may help patients who are experiencing milder symptoms. And it could also keep patients alive while their livers recover, from a drug overdose, say.