Oct. 17 Preclinical Quick Takes: Miromatrix, Mayo extend vascular function in liver graft scaffold; plus James Allison-MD Anderson, Northwestern and Eleusis

Extending vascular function in bioengineered liver graft scaffold
Miromatrix Inc. and Mayo Clinic researchers developed a way to vascularize bioengineered liver scaffolds that could maintain blood flow for more than a few days. Described in a Nature Biomedical Engineering article, a cell-free liver scaffold, derived from a whole pig liver and infused with human umbilical vein endothelial cells, sustained blood perfusion for up to 15 days after transplantation into immunosuppressed pigs. Difficulties in maintaining long-term vascularization have been a barrier to developing artificial or decellularized support structures for liver grafts generated via tissue engineering approaches (see “The Liver’s New Bud”).

Autoimmune antibodies as biomarkers of checkpoint inhibitor toxicity
James Allison and his colleagues at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggested that serum detection of autoimmune antibodies could predict immune-related adverse events in patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors. They reported in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences article higher probabilities of hypophysitis or pneumonitis adverse events if patients had serum auto-antibodies against GNAL, ITM2B or CD74 prior to or after therapy...