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A person's own fat will be a source of new cells for liver regeneration
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Scientists created hepatocytes from the waste that is obtained during liposuction (the removal of human fat) and used them to restore damaged liver cells. There was virtually no risk of cancer cells developing. This experiment was conducted on mice, but scientists hope to use this technology on humans in the near future.
Stanford University specialists have discovered a new way to regenerate liver cells, which has been successfully tested on experimental mice. The raw material used was artificially created and non-embryonic cells, which had been used previously in similar experiments, and human fat cells in an adult state.
Scientists believe that this method of liver cell regeneration has one, but significant advantage. Growing hepatocytes from embryonic stem cells or from genetically modified cells is always accompanied by the risk of developing a cancerous tumor. This is the reason that slowed down such technology. But if you get hepatocytes from adult fat cells, skipping the development stage, the risk is reduced to zero. The liver has an amazing ability to regenerate, a small part of the liver eventually forms into a full-fledged organ, but as a result of alcoholism, hepatitis or toxicological damage to the liver, the ability of cells to recover is destroyed.
Scientists claim that the process of turning fat cells into liver cells can be successfully applied to humans. The entire period takes about 9 days, which is enough to start the recovery process. Otherwise, the patient may die without a transplant. In the US alone, more than a thousand people do not wait their turn for a liver transplant every year, and the current transplant process is associated with risk, in addition, a person with a donor organ must take immunosuppressants, drugs that suppress the immune response, throughout their life to avoid rejection of the foreign organ.
The specialists are confident that the method they have developed will be suitable for clinics, since the new liver tissue will consist of the patient's own fat cells. Scientists assume that after the procedure, there will be no need to take immunosuppressants.
Growing liver cells from fat stem cells was discovered by a Japanese scientist in 2006. The growing process takes quite a long time – about a month, and is also ineffective – only 12% of cells are transformed into hepatocytes, which made it impossible to obtain a sufficient number of cells to restore the liver.
Stanford scientists have developed a new technology called spherical cultivation. This process allows liver cells to be obtained in 9 days, and with a fairly high efficiency of about 50%.
All studies were conducted on mice with a suppressed immune system (to prevent rejection of human cells). All mice also had a certain genetic modification, in which the introduction of a certain substance provoked rapid toxic damage to the liver. When 5 million of the obtained human liver cells were introduced into mice, it turned out after a month that human hepatocytes produced albumin, which was contained in the blood plasma of mice. Further observation of the mice for a month showed that the amount of this protein had increased threefold. The specialists were pleased with this result, since all previous attempts to grow a human liver in experimental mice resulted in minimal albumin content in the blood. Also, a blood test in mice showed that the new liver in mice is able to filter blood and cleanse it of toxins. Two months after the beginning of the experiment, no signs of cancer were found in the mice, while in another experimental group of mice, to which hepatocytes from artificial cells were transplanted, numerous tumors were found.
Scientists believe that in order to adapt the technology to humans, it will be necessary to obtain 200 billion cells. As the researchers said, 1 liter of pumped out fat allows to obtain about a billion such cells, in the body the cells will begin to actively multiply, as a result their number will be equal to 100 billion, which is quite sufficient for the process of liver restoration. This method allows to successfully replace the transplantation of a donor organ.
Scientists are now preparing the technology for use on larger animals. They expect that clinical trials will be ready in the next 2-3 years.
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