Mini human livers transplanted into rats

Every day in the UK over 40 people die from liver disease. Some of these deaths could be prevented by having a liver transplant, but there simply aren’t enough donor livers to meet demand. But what if we could grow livers in a laboratory, and use those for transplants instead? A team in Pittsburgh has now done just that in experimental animals. They’ve reprogrammed human skin cells to turn them into liver cells and grow mini livers in a dish. These were transplanted into rats genetically modified to prevent them from rejecting the transplant. Eva Higginbotham heard from Alejandro Soto-Gutierrez how they did it...