Engineering and implanting human liver tissue, LM.

Confocal micrograph of human liver tissue implanted into a mouse model for liver injury. Human liver cells (red/orange) and human blood vessels (green) in the implanted liver tissue have reorganised themselves and started to expand using blood (white) from the mouse host to help them grow. Development of blood vessels (vascularisation) in large complex tissues such as the liver is a major barrier for scaling up tissue engineering of organs to physiologically relevant sizes. Researchers hope to develop these implantable "satellite livers" to replace lost liver function in a damaged organ, with the hope that they could in future benefit patients suffering from liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Width of image is 1.1 mm. Confocal micrograph 2015.