British Scientists have developed a 'mini' version of a human liver which could lead to full scale transplants using laboratory developed livers. The scientists used umbilical cord blood stem cells and NASA developed technology to achieve this breakthrough.
Working in collaboration with experts from the US, the Newcastle scientists succeeded in separating out the stem cells from blood removed from the umbilical cord minutes after birth.
They are then placed in a 'bioreactor' - a piece of electrical equipment developed by NASA to mimic the effects of weightlessness. Inside this, the freedom from the force of gravity allows them to multiply more quickly than usual.
Then, various hormones and chemicals are added to coax the stem cells into turning into liver tissue.
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