SHNet, Jakarta – Leprosy is one of the world’s oldest and most persistent diseases, but the bacteria that cause it may also have the amazing ability to grow and regenerate vital organs.
Scientists have discovered that leprosy-associated parasites can reprogram cells to increase liver size in adult animals without causing damage, scarring or tumors.
Reported Sciencedailythe findings point to the possibility of adapting this natural process to renew aging livers and increase health span – the length of time to live without disease – in humans.
Experts say it can also help regrow damaged livers, thereby reducing the need for transplants, which are currently the only recovery option for people with end-stage liver injuries.
Previous studies have promoted the regrowth of mouse livers by generating stem and progenitor cells — the pass after stem cells that can become any type of cell for a particular organ — through invasive techniques that often result in scar tissue and tumor growth.
To combat this dangerous side effect, the Edinburgh researchers expanded on their earlier discovery of the partial cellular reprogramming ability of the leprosy-causing bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae.
Working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the team infected 57 armadillos — natural hosts of the leprosy bacteria — with the parasite and compared their livers to those of both uninfected armadillos. what found. resistant to infections.
They found that the infected animals developed enlarged — but healthy and unharmed — livers with the same vital components, such as blood vessels, bile ducts and functional units known as lobules, as uninfected, immune armadillos.
The team believes that the bacteria ‘sequester’ the liver’s intrinsic regenerative abilities to increase the size of the organ and, therefore, supply more cells within it to grow.
They also found several indicators that a major type of liver cell, known as hepatocytes, had reached a ‘rejuvenated’ state in the infected armadillos.
Infected armadillo livers also contained patterns of gene expression — patterns for building cells — similar to those in younger animals and human fetal hearts.
Genes related to cell metabolism, growth, and proliferation are turned on, and those associated with aging are downregulated or repressed.
Scientists think this is because the bacteria reprogram liver cells, returning them to their earliest stages of progenitor cells, which in turn become new hepatocytes and grow new liver tissue.
The team hopes this discovery has the potential to help develop interventions for aging and liver damage in humans. Liver disease currently causes two million deaths a year worldwide.
The findings were published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. This work was funded by the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom and the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States.
Professor Anura Rambukkana, lead author from the University of Edinburgh’s Center for Regenerative Medicine, said: ‘If we can identify how bacteria grow the liver as a functional organ without causing adverse effects in live animals, we may be able to translating this knowledge into developing safer therapeutic interventions to rejuvenate aging hearts and regenerate damaged tissue.” (In a)
