The increase in the number of overweight people in France makes certain liver transplants more complex, because the organ is sometimes too fatty and therefore of poorer quality. One solution would be to defat the livers, just before transplanting them.
Nearly 3,000 patients are on the waiting list for a liver transplant, according to the Biomedicine Agency. However, the increase in the number of overweight French people, almost half of French people according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), complicates the smooth running of transplants. Indeed, doctors have found that when the liver is too fatty, it deteriorates very quickly during the few hours between the death of the donor and the transplant to a new patient.
The work of Marine Coué, research engineer at Inserm in Poitiers, is to modify healthy liver cells. “There, these are cells just in classic condition, she describes in her laboratory. Then, what you have next to it are cells that we have cultured with lipids. And there, the droplets you see are lipid droplets.”
In short, it makes these liver cells fatter so that they more closely resemble those of the French. How do livers react to this phenomenon called steatosis? That’s the whole question.
A gene to protect the liver from lipid accumulation
Today, there is no contraindication for transplanting slightly fatty livers taken from people who have just died. But the problem is the in-between. Between the harvest and the transplant, there are a few hours during which the quality of these livers which have too much lipids deteriorates.
“The removal and transplantation stages are a significant stress for the organ, explains Professor Luc Pellerin, who directs this laboratory at Inserm. If we had a way to act on these deleterious processes, perhaps we would better preserve these livers. The idea is to be able to act on these livers at the time they are removed, so as to improve the chances that their function will return to normal once transplanted.”.
One solution would be to defat these livers just before transplanting them, imagines Professor Thierry Hauet.
“The goal is to remove lipids. We are going to use cocktails that will effectively remove this fat and make a liver that could be of better quality.”
Thierry Hauet, professor of biochemistry,at franceinfo
Researchers are also exploring other avenues for preserving livers, for which there would not necessarily be a need to get rid of excess fat or lipids. For example, using mice, they identified a gene that could protect the liver from lipid accumulation. For the moment, these are only avenues of research. It will take years to dig them, specify the scientists from this Poitiers laboratory.