Transforming the Spleen into a Functioning Liver In Vivo

We demonstrate a different strategy that successfully transformed an existing, functionally dispensable organ to regenerate another, functionally vital one in the body. Specifically, we injected STH into the mouse spleen to remodel its tissue structure, and implanted in there human or rat liver cell lines. The remodeled spleen developed an immunosuppressive, yet highly vascularized microenvironment, in which the trans-species cells proliferated fast and developed the functions of the human liver through 8 weeks, without exerting adverse responses. The Gene Expression profiling of normal spleens (Normal) vs the translocated spleens (Post-surgery), Normal as control; the translocated spleens treated with PBS vs the translocated spleens treated with STH, PBS as control; the PBS-treated spleens implanted with HepG2 (PBS+HepG2) vs the STH-treated spleens implanted with HepG2 (STH+HepG2)，PBS+HepG2 as control; splenic macrophages treated with PBS (PBS (macrophage)) vs macrophages treated with STH (STH(macrophage)), PBS (macrophage) as control. Five cell/spleen samples were pooled according to individual groups.