Immunoprotection of hepatocytes by encapsulation

Availability of human organ donors has become extremely limited and other sources of organs must be investigated. Cell transplantation could become an alternative for the metabolic support of patients with acute or chronic liver failure. The aims of our projects are to evaluate the potential of primary or immortalized hepatocyte transplantation for treatment of acute liver failure, by using micro-encapsulation methods.Based on the extensive research and clinical experience in the field of islet cell transplantation performed at our laboratory, we have developed rodent and human hepatocyte isolation, microencapsulation and transplantation. In collaboration with the laboratory of Didier Trono, human hepatocytes were immortalized using lentiviral vectors. Primary rat or immortalized human hepatocytes were encapsulated and transplanted into mice with acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure, allowing significant increase of survival. We plan to test function and survival of encapsulated hepatocyte transplantation in large animal models of acute liver failure.

Figure: Encapsulated immortalized human hepatocytes in culture