Experts have discovered a new type of cell in the liver. These cells would have an extremely important role in repairing the damage. These “guide cells” bring healthy tissue into wounds as they heal after a wound.
Which means that they are the cells that enable the regeneration process, writes Live Science.
With this discovery, researchers can create new remedies for diseases that affect the liver. The study was published in the journal Nature.
A new cell has been discovered in the human body
“Modern technologies have allowed us to study regeneration in the human liver at a fantastic level for the first time,” said Dr. Neil Henderson, co-author of the study. “Which helps identify a cell that is extremely important for liver healing.”
“We hope our research will accelerate the discovery of necessary treatments for patients with liver disease,” Henderson continued. A new cell discovered in the liver may revolutionize the way liver remedies are developed.
The liver helps remove toxins from the blood and metabolize drugs. The liver also has the fantastic ability to heal itself after an injury, such as after a viral infection such as hepatitis, drug-induced or cirrhosis.
Sometimes, however, the liver reaches a point where it cannot heal fast enough. Which leads to acute liver failure. This condition can start within 48 hours. It has symptoms such as yellowing of the skin, excessive bleeding and dysfunction of multiple organs. Now that a new cell has been discovered, researchers can focus on developing different treatments.
Depending on the cause, acute liver failure can be reversed by medication, as if it was induced by poisoning, for example. But in severe cases, the only solution is a liver transplant. As a result, there is a great need for new therapies that could increase the liver’s natural ability to heal itself.
The new cells can help the liver heal
To study the healing process, Henderson and his colleagues studied the liver tissue of people who suffered from acute failure and received liver transplants. Although many of these patients’ liver cells could multiply, their livers showed signs of significant damage.
The team analyzed every cell in the livers of these patients. After that, they compared these cases with those of healthy patients. Thus, they obtained an “atlas” of liver regeneration and thus a new cell was discovered in the human body.
Recently, an evolutionary event that occurs once in 1 billion years has been observed by experts.
In the study, the experts detected which of the cells were active and especially at which moments in the healing process. This is how they discovered that these cells are the first to intervene in case of a wound, to close it. Which suggests that liver tissue prioritizes closing a wound over making new tissue.
