An introduction to Research | Current research funded by CLDF | Development of foetal hepatocyte therapy for children wth liver based metabolic disorders

Development of foetal hepatocyte therapy for children wth liver based metabolic disorders

Professor Anil Dhawan - Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College London School of
Medicine, King’s College London

Hepatocyte transplantation is being used at King’s College Hospital as a new treatment for children with metabolic liver disease. Functional cells isolated from unused donor livers are infused into a patient’s liver instead of replacing the whole liver. The procedure is less invasive, does not involve major surgery and as the patient’s own liver is left in situ, there is scope for gene therapy in the future. The benefits of transplantation with cells from adult donors have been limited by the lack of available tissue as is the case with all human donor organs.

Foetal cell therapy has been used successfully in patients with Parkinson’s Disease to replace the damaged brain cells. Foetal liver cells should be a predictable and relatively reliable alternative source of cells for hepatocyte transplantation. The cells should have a much greater potential to repopulate the recipient liver, be easier to freeze for storage and are less likely to be rejected by the recipient. This project will develop the techniques for isolation and handling of foetal liver cells so that they can be used for transplantation in children with liver-based metabolic disorders in the future.

Budget:

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Total	Indicate items to be funded by CLDF
a) Staff	£37,096	£41,101		£78,197	Yes
c) Consumables	£7,500	£7,500		£15,000	No
d) Publicity and dissemination (production of information materials, project reports etc)
e) Training for staff
f) Research supervision
g) Travel and subsistence
h) Recruitment Costs
i) Data analysis costs
j) Equipment *
TOTAL Project Costs	£44596	£48,601		£93,197

Project - June 1st 2007 for 2 years