trial using liverstem cells that could avoid transplant surgery.
Paediatric liver consultant Professor Anil Dhawan, who will head the
trial at King's College Hospital, has described the use of stem cells
to treat liver disease as an "exciting breakthrough", The Daily Mail
reported.
Doctors have developed a pioneering treatment for liver disease that
could save hundreds of lives a year and avoid the need for transplant
surgery, it said.
Eighteen British children suffering from rare and life threatening
liver conditions are to receive infusions of specially treated liver
cells removed from the organs of dead donors, the paper said.
It said that doctors believe they will make vital stem cells — the
building blocks of life — and repair the damaged organ.
"We have many very sick children and babies who need transplants. If
we can cure them without a transplant that will be a fantastic
development.
"We have tried using ordinary liver cells with limited success, but is
the first time a treatment has been developed that gets the liver to
regrow using stem cells," Mr. Dhawan was quoted, as saying by the
daily.
He added that if all goes well, the children, who are being treated
with the cells, will show an improvement within a couple of months.
"We would expect those children to come off their medicines and
therapy. It will mean the liver cells have done their job and
corrected the defects that made them ill. "Then we will have to see
how long the effect lasts and whether we have to top upthese children
with further infusions. I am optimistic the treatment will work," he
said/
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