Researchers test bioartificial liver as possible aid for acute liver failure

[Clark]

http://www.healio.com/hepatology/cirrhosis-liver-failure/news/online/%7B7b0e9845-3194-4244-9f70-bb50c2f2421f%7D/researchers-test-bioartificial-liver-as-possible-aid-for-acute-liver-failure

Researchers test bioartificial liver as possible aid for acute liver failure

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have begun testing the safety and efficacy of a bioartificial liver system as a potential treatment for alcohol-related liver disease, according to a news release.

The novel artificial liver device (ELAD, Vital Therapies) is being tested at Cedars-Sinai and 48 other clinical sites as part of a worldwide study to find new treatment options for liver failure. At Cedars-Sinai, testing includes patients with liver disease caused by acute alcoholic hepatitis, the release said.

“The quest for a device that can fill in for the function of the liver, at least temporarily, has been under way for decades,” researcher Steven D. Colquhoun, MD, surgical director of liver transplantation at Cedars-Sinai’s Comprehensive Transplant Center, said in the release. “A bioartificial liver, also known as a BAL, could potentially sustain patients with acute liver failure until their own livers self-repair.”

The BAL draws blood from the patient via a central venous line and filters it through a component system with four 1-foot tubes that are embedded with liver cells, according to the release. The system provides support, synthesizes protein, processes and cleans a patient’s blood, which is then returned to the patient via the central line.

“If successful, a bioartificial liver could not only allow time for a patient’s own damaged organ to regenerate, but also promote that regeneration,” Colquhoun said. “In the case of chronic liver failure, it also potentially could support some patients through the long wait for a liver transplant.”

Andrew S. Klein MD, MBA, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center and the Esther and Mark Schulman Chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, said the study is important in helping patients to overcome liver failure.

“Liver failure patients and their doctors have long been frustrated by the critical need to provide the kind of lifesaving care kidney patients are afforded by dialysis,” Klein said in the release. “This important investigation we are undertaking at Cedars-Sinai is a critical step in addressing the medical emergency presented by liver failure.”