Transplanting liver cells made from the world's first ES cells Successful treatment of babies May 21 4:16

The Center for Child Health and Development has announced that it has succeeded in treating babies with intractable diseases by transplanting liver cells made from ES cells that can transform into cells in various tissues and organs of the body. According to the center, it is the first transplantation of cells made from ES cells in Japan and the first in the world.

In October of last year, a medical team of the Department of Clinical Organs, National Institute of Child Health and Medical Research, Fukuda, announced that he had transplanted liver cells made from ES cells to a 6-day-old baby with "abnormal urea cycle". Did.

"Urea cycle disorder" is an incurable disease in which ammonia cannot be decomposed because a specific enzyme does not work in the liver, which may lead to death, and the only basic treatment is liver transplantation.

However, in the case of a baby, a liver transplant cannot be received from about 3 months to 5 months after birth when the body weight grows up to about 6 kg, so treatment during that time has been an issue.

The medical team transplanted 190 million liver cells made from ES cells so that they could reach the blood vessels of the baby's liver through the blood vessels of the umbilical cord, so that the baby's ammonia concentration in the blood becomes a normal value, I was able to leave the hospital 9 weeks later.

The baby then received a liver transplant from his father in March this year and is growing well.

According to the center, the transplant of cells made from ES cells is the first in Japan and the first in the world to be transplanted to the liver, so the medical team will conduct a clinical trial to confirm the safety and efficacy during this year. I would like to transplant about three more cases to make it a widely usable treatment.

Kasahara Group Organ Transplantation Center Director said, "I have accumulated more than 20 years of research on ES cells and performed surgery. I think it is important to proceed with the research together with iPS cells."