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Artificial Cells
Published in Franklin Lim, Biomedical Applications of Microencapsulation, 2019
Unlike terminal kidney failure, in terminal liver failure there is at present no artificial liver support system available. The first partial success with an artificial liver support system was carried out here in 1972 when a patient with grade IV hepatic coma was treated by hemoperfusion with the artificial cell detoxification device.76 It was found that with each treatment of 2 hr the patient, who was originally completely unconscious and unresponsive, regained full consciousness and started talking with people. This recovery of consciousness lasted for a few hours. Repeated treatment successfully returned the patient’s consciousness each time.76 These results stimulated a large number of centers to use the artificial cell detoxification device to treat patients with hepatic coma due to liver failure. Up to now there are a total of about 500 cases treated around the world and the results support our original observations, since in 60 to 80% of the patients treated there was recovery of consciousness.47–52,77 This is only a partial progress towards a complete artificial liver since the liver is an extremely complex organ which not only removes toxic and waste metabolites from the body, but at the same time carries out complicated metabolic functions and also produces material essential to the body. With the detoxifying approach alone using artificial cells, only toxic and waste materials are removed. Further research has been carried out in laboratory experiments.
Decellularized liver matrix-modified chitosan fibrous scaffold as a substrate for C3A hepatocyte culture
Published in Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition, 2020
Chaochen Zhao, Yang Li, Gongze Peng, Xiongxin Lei, Guifeng Zhang, Yi Gao
Liver-assist devices can be artificial and bio-artificial. So far, the clinical efficacy of artificial devices is not satisfying due to its inability to perform liver-specific functions, such as synthetic and metabolic functions. In contrast, biological artificial liver support systems (BALSS) can provide partial liver function such as albumin synthesis and ammonia metabolism owing to the cultured hepatocytes in BALSS. ALF patients treated with BALSS show a more stable medical condition before liver transplantation, and a better outcome following liver transplantation. The key part of BALSS is a bioreactor containing functional hepatocytes. However, it is a big challenge to maintain the number and activity of hepatocytes [4]. Various kinds of culture substrates have been used to produce appropriate three-dimensional scaffolds which sustain cell physiology and promote cell adhesion and proliferation.