Photo/Illutration The Asahi Shimbun

In a world first, researchers have created a mini multi-organ structure from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

According to results published in the British science journal Nature on Sept. 25, Takanori Takebe, a professor at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and other researchers created a liver, bile duct and pancreas at the same time.

The structure of three organs integrated with each other had never been made from iPS cells before.

Takebe said the team intends to turn the model they developed in their research into practical use within 10 years.

To transplant the multi-organ structure into a human, the researchers need to successfully make blood vessels and other structures simultaneously.

The purpose of many past studies using iPS cells was to create a specific cell, such as a nerve and a cardiac cell.

In 2013, Takebe and his fellow researchers made a mini liver, the first organ made from iPS cells. However, though they were able to create a single organ and transplant it into a patient, the organ did not function fully, nor did it work for a long time.

Tackling those challenges, the research team set out to make multiple organs simultaneously from iPS cells.

First, the team created two anlages for the digestive system, foregut and midgut tissues.

When they combined the two, a hepato-biliary-pancreatic anlage emerged at the foregut-midgut boundary.

When the team cultured the cell, the mini multi-organ structure of a connected liver, bile duct and pancreas was produced. It was as large as the organs of a one- to two-months-old fertilized embryo.

The team believes that retinoic acid-dependent released from the foregut tissue induced the creation of the hepato-biliary-pancreatic anlage.