Guest guest Posted December 11, 2001 Report Share Posted December 11, 2001 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20011209a4.htm Doctors drop plan to use pig cells for liver FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Doctors at Kyushu University said Saturday they have dropped a plan to treat patients with an artificial liver system that uses pig liver cells due to fears of possible infections. Keizo Sugimachi, a professor of surgery, said his research team has withdrawn its application to the university's ethics committee to proceed with the plan. The team dropped the plan because it would be difficult to overcome strict guidelines that the ethics panel drew up in May to prevent infections in cases in which animal organs are used in treatments. The guidelines, the first in Japan covering the use of animal organs to treat patients, oblige researchers to check the health of patients given artificial livers as well as their families for the rest of their lives to determine whether they have contracted any unknown virus or other disease-causing agent. The guidelines also call for pigs used in operations to be free from infection, but it is hard to obtain such animals, Sugimachi said. The team said it will study creating artificial livers using human liver cells. It had planned to create an artificial liver using pig liver cells cultured in plastic containers packed with polyurethane foam. Plasma from the patient's blood would have been passed through the system to remove ammonia and other toxins. The apparatus was for use by patients awaiting transplants or others with acute liver disorders. The plan was filed with the ethics panel in 1999. Yusuke Yanagi, a Kyushu University professor of virology and the chief architect of the guidelines, said such treatments should be handled carefully because using animal organs could cause serious diseases. The decision follows the recent decision to abandon a similar research plan by a separate team at Nagasaki University, also because of infection fears. The Nagasaki team has also switched to studying artificial livers using human cells. The Japan Times: Dec. 9, 2001 © All rights reserved Check out Shopping and Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at or bid at http://auctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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