FDA Testing Artificial Liver 146
NIckGorton writes "Research is now underway in the US to seek FDA approval for an artificial liver. The Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device (ELAD) filters blood through a cartridge containing immortalized human liver cells with fiber tubes running through that allow the patients blood to interact with them. This allows the matrix of liver cells to perform both the metabolic (cleansing the blood of toxins/waste) and synthetic (producing albumin, clotting factors, etc) functions of the patient's failing liver. A small trial in China showed a statistically and clinically significant difference in 30 day survival with ELAD."
Until they test... (Score:1, Insightful)
Sweet! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:IMMORTAL! (Score:1, Insightful)
"Immortalized"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nice way of saying "we're replacing your bad liver cancer with a good liver cancer in this handy take-home plug-in box".
Re:An artificial liver? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Immortal liver cells want BLOOD! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also very important to note is that anyone who is getting this treatment is going to be seriously ill to begin with, and without it will be dying. I'm sure that they'll consider a chance of getting cancer is a small price to pay.
Re:IMMORTAL! (Score:3, Insightful)
I for one, and this might just be my superstitious self, would be concerned about the prospect of my bodily fluids interacting with biological material that has been, so to speak, "immortalized."
Huh - slashdotters are so supernatural-minded.
What they actually do is get the surviving Beatles to re-form and compose a number 1 hit song about liver cells, hire a Nobel laureate to write a book about them and hang a picture of the donor liver in the Louvre.