Medicine » Gastroenterology

Liver Regeneration

Edited by Pedro M. Baptista, ISBN 978-953-51-0622-7, Hard cover, 252 pages, Publisher: InTech, Chapters published May 16, 2012 under CC BY 3.0 license
DOI: 10.5772/1645

Doctors and scientists have been aware of the "phenomenom" of liver regeneration since the time of the ancient Greeks, illustrated by the mythic tale of Prometheus' punishment. Nevertheless, true insight into its intricate mechanisms have only become available in the 20th century. Since then, the pathways and mechanisms involved in restoring the liver to its normal function after injury have been resolutely described and characterized, from the hepatic stem/progenitor cell activation and expansion to the more systemic mechanisms involving other tissues and organs like bone-marrow progenitor cell mobilization. This book describes some of the complex mechanisms involved in liver regeneration and provides examples of the most up-to-date strategies used to induce liver regeneration, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. The information presented will hopefully benefit not only professionals in the liver field, but also people in other areas of science (pharmacology, toxicology, etc) that wish to expand their knowledge of the fundamental biology that orchestrates liver injury and regeneration.

PhD. Pedro Baptista

Dr. Pedro M. Baptista, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is currently a research fellow at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, USA. This is a world-renown institution in the field of tissue and organ engineering, and the first to accomplish a transplantation of an in vitro-grown organ, the bladder, into a human patient. Dr. Baptista is originally from Portugal, where he obtained his Pharmacy degree at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon. He has worked in clinical research for the pharmaceutical industry before engaging in his doctoral dissertation project in liver bioengineering and regeneration. His doctoral work resulted in the development of the first human liver ever made in a laboratory, impacting the scientific community at large and widely broadcasted in the media all around the world. He has more than 20 scientific publications including a book, book chapters and several papers and reviews published in prestigious international journals. He is also a regular contributor to the portuguese pharmaceutical magazine “Pharmacy and Distribution” where he publishes a monthly chronicle. Dr. Baptista’s current research interests focus on investigating methods to expand stem/progenitor cell numbers required for organ bioengineering and in making the long term transplantation of these lab-grown organs a reality.

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  • Liver Regeneration
    Liver Regeneration

    Doctors and scientists have been aware of the "phenomenom" of liver regeneration since the time of the ancient Greeks, illustrated by the mythic tale of Prometheus' punishment. Nevertheless, true insight into its intricate mechanisms have only become available in the 20th century. Since then, the pathways and mechanisms involved in restoring the liver to its normal function after injury have been resolutely described and characterized, from the hepatic stem/progenitor cell activation and expansion to the more systemic mechanisms involving other tissues and organs like bone-marrow progenitor cell mobilization. This book describes some of the complex mechanisms involved in liver regeneration and provides examples of the most up-to-date strategies used to induce liver regeneration, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. The information presented will hopefully benefit not only professionals in the liver field, but also people in other areas of science (pharmacology, toxicology, etc) that wish to expand their knowledge of the fundamental biology that orchestrates liver injury and regeneration.

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