PIEZO1 in Liver Surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PIEZO1 in Liver Regeneration: Activation in scenarios of Small for Size Syndrome, changes in portal vein flow and variations in different ethnic backgrounds.
IRAS ID
289032
Contact name
David Beech
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Patients with liver cancer need surgical operations to remove a large part of their diseased organ this leads to increase in blood flow through the remaining parts of the liver. Depending on the extent of these changes and the ability of the liver tissues to cope with them, they can lead to tissue damage or stimulate regeneration in the liver.
PIEZO1 is a recently discovered protein that responds to increase in blood flow and is important for the generation of new blood vessels. We have previously demonstrated that PIEZO1 is present and active in liver endothelial cells and we hypothesize that PIEZO1 is an important factor in liver regeneration. One of our recent discoveries was the association of a mutation in the sequence of PIEZO1 with COVID-19 fatality. The prevalence of this mutation varies with ethnicity. Another mutation of PIEZO1 was associated with resistance to malaria infection. This later is important as liver damages are a feature of malaria. Altogether our findings and others strengthen the possible role of PIEZO1 in playing a role in liver vascular regeneration and potential importance of ethnic variation in this process.
We will assess PIEZO1 function during surgery before and after changing blood flow in the liver and correlate these changes with differences in PIEZO activity. We will explore PIEZO1 differences in subjects of different ethnic backgrounds by examining liver samples of organ donors from Quality in Organ Donation (QUOD) Biobank. Finally, we will reproduce liver surgery in animal models where Piezo1 is not functional in order to explore the role and activity of PIEZO1 in liver regeneration in response to the physiological changes caused by surgery.REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
21/WA/0269
Date of REC Opinion
13 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion