'Humanized' mouse may offer liver disease treatments

Washington, Feb 23 (ANI): Scientists have generated a mouse with an almost complete human liver.

The team, led by Salk Institute researchers, says this 'humanized' mouse is susceptible to human liver infections and responds to human drug treatments, providing a new way to test novel therapies for debilitating human liver diseases and other diseases with liver involvement such as malaria.

"We found that, not only can we infect our humanized mouse with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, but we can then successfully treat this infection using typical drugs," said first author Karl-Dimiter Bissig, an internist and post-doctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Genetics.

"As a physician, I understand the importance of this type of bench-to-bedside research. This study shows a real application for our mouse model, making it relevant from both an academic and a clinical perspective," Bissig added.

The findings will be published in the Feb. 22, 2010 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. (ANI)