http://discovermagazine.com/2012/mar/30-turning-lymph-nodes-into-liver-growing-factories
This article talks about a new technique under development by a stem cell researcher named Eric Lagasse in University of Pittsburgh that can turn any one of the body’s lymph nodes, the small, oval-shaped organs where immune cells gather to fight invading pathogens—into an incubator that can grow an entirely new liver.
As his test tube, he used mice with end-stage liver disease, implanting liver cells, or hepatocytes, from another mouse into their kidney capsules, under the skin, and into the spleen. Most of the mice died within eight weeks, the usual prognosis for end-stage liver failure in mice. But that changed when Lagasse injected cells into the belly: The mice gained weight, recovered energy, and within weeks appeared healthy.
After watching those mice thrive for several months, Lagasse repeated the experiment using fluorescent markers to trace the path of the liver cells. To his surprise, they had migrated to lymph nodes, where they grew to form large nodules that, in aggregate, reached a mass capable of keeping the animal alive.
Using his technique in mice, Lagasse has already succeeded in growing 20 to 40 small livers that gradually pick up the slack as the central liver fades. Together the mini-livers add up to 70 percent the size of a normal liver. Next Lagasse plans to replicate his experiments in pigs and hopes to implant human patients within the next few years.
This article is interesting and relates to our lecture discussion about the lymphatic system, lymph nodes and their functions and other lymphatic organs.
