Tissues

Tissue Services includes a multi-tissue bank based at our state-of-the-art facility in Liverpool  it is the largest in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Every year, hundreds of patients benefit from donated tissues such as bone, skin, heart valves, corneas and tendons. Donated tissues can improve quality of life and save others and up to 50 people can benefit from one person donations. Vital and current research is leading us towards new treatments and techniques that could benefit even more patients.

In 2010/11:

• We teamed up with researchers at the University of York to develop a method of long-term storage of living articular cartilage the tissue which covers the ends of bones in joints  including ways to keep the cartilage at ultra-low temperatures for long periods until it is needed by surgeons. Once complete our tissue bank will be uniquely placed to provide this service.
  
  
• Our research team began developing tissue grafts where the donor cells are removed from donated tissues, leaving behind an acellular matrix. Once grafted, this tissue is repopulated by the patient's cells allowing it to grow and repair itself naturally.
  
  
• We started working with colleagues at the University of Leeds to develop acellular blood vessels and acellular heart valves. Similar valves implanted into patients in Brazil function significantly better than unprocessed valves.
  
  
• Our scientists have been developing demineralised bone matrix (DBM) a powder obtained by grinding the shafts of the femur and treating it with acid. DBM is used by surgeons to stimulate rapid bone repair in joint replacements and bone fractures. We are also producing demineralised slices of bone which are flexible and can be wrapped around a bony defect to help it heal. Surgeons are being recruited to clinically evaluate the bone.

Learn more: visit the Tissue Services website