This experiment marks the first time researchers have ever successfully introduced mitochondria into specific cells in living animals. The study lays the groundwork to address a serious gap in treatment for liver diseases and may even eventually be used to treat other maladies throughout the body affected by mitochondrial malfunction or damage.

This groundbreaking experiment marks the first time researchers have ever successfully introduced mitochondria into specific cells in living animals.

Mitochondria generate energy from the conversion of fatty acids and carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and water, powering cells throughout the body. There is a significant link between mitochondrial damage and various liver diseases. When mitochondria are damaged, they cannot provide the liver with enough energy to function normally. This results in liver cell death and liver failure.

Currently, the only treatment for liver failure is a complete organ transplant. Surgeons perform approximately 8,000 liver transplants per year in the United States, but because of a shortage of donor livers, thousands more people on the waitlist for a transplant will die before receiving one.

Using their knowledge of a well-characterized receptor on the liver, Wu and his team previously showed mitochondria can be coated with certain carrier proteins which lead the liver to recognize them and take them up. These proteins have exposed galactose, a kind of sugar, on their surface. The galactose acts as a signal for the liver to internalize that protein.

«We took advantage of a normal, natural mechanism,» Wu says.

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