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When a medication enters the bloodstream, it ends up being concentrated in the liver – after all, one of the organ's main functions is to cleanse the blood. This means that if a drug is going to have an adverse effect on any part of the body, chances are it will be the liver. It would seem to follow, therefore, that if a pharmaceutical company wanted to test the safety of its products, it would be nice to have some miniature human livers on which to experiment – which is just what San Diego-based biotech firm Organovo ( http://ir.organovo.com/news/press-releases/press-releases-details/2014/Organovo-Announces-Commercial-Release-of-the-exVive3D-Human-Liver-Tissue/default.aspx ) is about to start selling.
Known as exVive3D, the three-dimensional liver models measure just a few millimeters across, and are created using a 3D bioprinter. The device incorporates two print heads, one of which deposits a support matrix, and the other of which precisely places human liver cells in it.
http://www.gizmag.com/organovo-exvive3d-liver-models/34843/
[Additional Coverage]: http://www.popsci.com/3-d-printed-pencil-tip-size-livers-go-sale
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Friday November 21 2014, @06:53PM
pump nutrients through it - cells want to live and in vivo you give them oxygenated media and some glucose and they'll live quite happily.
To get them to differentiate requires specific growth factors (e.g. VEGF for blood vessels), but biology is pretty good at self-assembling. You would be amazed what was used 60 years ago in lab experiments!! I get the impression they liquidised all sorts of stuff and see if it works!!
The major problem is your adult liver took 20 years to grow, and you needed it every day for that time. So lab grown has a big leap...
Hence, a true advance is a liver that can be implanted and "helps" the failing one...and of course, using your stem cells.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 22 2014, @07:07AM