Scientists have developed organoids to simulate fatty liver disease. Hubrecht Institute reports.
Fat accumulation in the liver is becoming an increasingly common disease in the world, affecting more than a quarter of the world’s population. This can lead to inflammation, liver dysfunction, and eventually scar tissue. Most often, this disease occurs due to improper diet and sedentary lifestyle, as well as genetic disorders. At the same time, scientists do not have a suitable tool to study this disease – fatty liver disease in mice progresses in a completely different way.
For this reason, scientists have created organoid models for these purposes. Organelles are miniature resemblances of human or animal organs that are created from living cells and function like a real counterpart. With their help, it was possible to simulate fatty disease in three ways: by “feeding” cells with fatty acids that must reproduce a “bad” diet, and also by using two different genetic mutations caused by artificial genome editing.
After that, the authors began to study the effect of various drugs on this disease. It turned out that organelles, which are caused by a genetic mutation, respond to drugs differently than others. As a result, scientists have been able to isolate the most effective drugs to combat this disease, but before they can be used, it is necessary to make sure that they will act similarly on a real organ.
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