A new source of hepatocytes for transplantation

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Transplant Proc. 2004 Oct;36(8):2466-8.

A new source of hepatocytes for transplantation.

Haghighi KS, Woon WW, Akhter J, Marr PJ, Bolton E, Riordan S, DL.

UNSW Department of Surgery, St Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

INTRODUCTION: The most effective treatment for acute or chronic liver

failure is orthotopic liver transplantation. Worldwide there is a shortage

of organs for transplantation. This shortage has called for research into

new treatments for management of patients with liver failure. One such

treatment is hepatocyte transplantation. During liver resections

considerable amounts of normal liver are unavoidably resected. We aim to

harvest these hepatocytes and to filter the tumor cells from them to provide

a source for transplantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After liver resection,

the largest vessel at the resected liver edge was identified and cannulated.

Seglen's two-stage technique of perfusing the liver with EDTA and

collagenase was performed to harvest the hepatocytes. Ep-CAM Ags are

consistently present on the surface of epithelial cells and in particular in

colorectal cancer cells. Therefore, MOC31 antibodies (selective Abs for

Ep-CAM) attached to magnetic beads were used to target the tumor cells.

These tumor cells are selectively removed using a magnet. CEA staining was

then used to ensure the hepatocyte collection was tumor cell free. Five

million hepatocytes were rosetted with one million HT29 CRC cells to assess

the immunomagnetic filtration technique. RESULTS: The hepatocyte harvesting

resulted in 864,000 viable hepatocytes to be harvested per gram of liver.

Histochemical staining using CEA demonstrated 75% of the HT29 cells in the

hepatocyte collection were removed after one use of magnetic beads.

CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated the successful initial stages of harvesting

tumor-free hepatocytes from liver resected for malignancy.

PMID: 15561283 [PubMed - in process