Injected liver cells stayed viable and functional for eight weeks in mice

Can’t keep waiting on the transplant list? How about an injectable “satellite liver” instead? After an MIT research project showed early success, the idea of a mini organ that could be injected into the body to take over for a failing liver doesn’t sound so far-fetched.

Okay, this early success was in mice, but after eight weeks of watching liver cells suspended in a lattice of hydrogel microspheres, assembled using ultrasound-guided needles within the mice's abdomens, integrate and support liver function, the success is pretty substantial.

The point of such an experiment was to find a way to restore the function of hepatocytes, which are the specific functional cells of the liver that do all of its important things like filtering the blood, synthesizing and storing protein, and transforming carbohydrates, without the need for full-on surgery. 

In this case, the researchers used what they call Injected, Self-assembled ...