If the diameter of the channel is too small or too large, it doesn't happen. One of the things we are studying is the scale at which these cells self-assemble. The immediate goal of the project, supported in part by a Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Research Grant, is to understand how liver cells grow and organize into a functional liver. The long-term goal is to cultivate replacement organs for the 30,000 Americans who die annually from liver failure. Fewer than 3,000 livers become available each year for transplant, and there is no widely used assist device like the dialysis machine for kidney patients.
Transplantation is the only hope for patients with liver failure.
The liver, the largest of the internal organs, has powerful regenerative properties, like the spire of a starfish or the tail of a chameleon. Professor Griffith-Cima's group envisions growing enough liver cells to form a small organ, then implanting the small liver in the portal vein that leads from the digestive system to the liver. The scaffold supporting the cells would dissolve in the same way that internal resorbable sutures do, leaving behind a miniature liver. Right now, about 15 percent of all liver transplants do not take hold. That means that in a day or two, another donor has to be found.