Liver Cells Grow in Pig Lymph Nodes, Study Proves [Humans Soon to Undergo Clinical Trials]

Liver cells could grow in the lymph nodes of pigs, as proven in a study. The next clinical trial will be testing human hepatocytes.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers revealed that large animals with impaired livers can grow a new organ in their lymph nodes. Associate professor of pathology at Pitt, Eric Lagasse, Pharm.D., Ph.D., explained their study. He said that if liver function is needed and the hepatocytes get in the right spot, an ectopic liver will form in the lymph node.

Usually, the cells in the liver replenish themselves in a healthy and nurturing environment. In the end-stage of liver disease, scar tissues bind the liver, and it is too toxic to make a comeback. Senior author, Lagasse, said that the liver is in a frenzied state to regenerate. He explained that the liver cells try to repair the native liver. However, since they could not do so, they die.

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The previous study proved the effect in mice

Lagasse injected healthy liver cells into the mouse's lymph nodes nearly a decade ago. He found that they would flourish and would form an auxiliary liver to function as the native liver. The new cells took over the tasks of the ailing liver of the animals.

Since mice are small, Lagrasse and his team wanted to prove that a large animal could do the same. His research team wanted to grow a secondary liver tissue with a meaningful size to fight liver diseases.

The research team diverted the main blood supply from the liver to mimic human liver disease in pigs. They also removed a piece of healthy liver tissue and extracted the cells. Then they injected them to the abdominal lymph nodes of the same animal.

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Pigs recovered liver functions

They found that all six pigs have recovered their liver functions. The research team studied their lymph nodes and found that they had thriving liver cells. Apart from that, bile duct networks and vasculature have spontaneously formed among the injected hepatocytes.

When the animals' native liver got more severely damaged tissue, the auxiliary livers grew bigger. It shows that the animals' bodies are trying to maintain liver mass balance than having runaway growth due to cancer.

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These findings help to strengthen the results of another study by Lagasse and his team at Mayo Clinic. In the study, the pigs had a genetic liver defect. Lagasse and his colleagues grew healthy liver tissues in the pigs' lymph nodes by spontaneously migrating them to the animals' livers. As a result, the team was able to replace the ailing cells and cured the liver disease of the animals.

Lagasse expects that growing auxiliary livers in human lymph nodes could help no matter what caused the liver disease.