Expanding the liver repertoire

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine the identification and successful expansion of human hepatic stem cells, a discovery that could speed the development of cell therapies for liver disorders.

According to Lola Reid, leader of the research team and a professor of cell and molecular physiology and biomolecular engineering at UNC, the paper is the first to identify human hepatic stem cells, the precursors to hepatoblasts. "For the last 30-40 years, people thought that hepatoblasts were themselves the stem cells," she said...