Vol. 2, Issue 5, Part N (2016)

Abstract
Liver failure is one of the major cause of mortality worldwide. Without liver transplantation there was no other way for survival of patient suffering from liver disease either acute or chronic. Two types of devices are now available for temporary support- artificial and bioartificial liver. Artificial liver generally use non-living components to remove toxins accumulated during liver failure. Bio artificial livers use bioreactors containing porcine or human hepatocytes to provide biotransformation and synthetic liver functions. Different bio artificial liver systems are being investigated clinically on the basis of their capacity to provide and replace most of the liver functions. However, there are some challenges such as cost, cell availability and maintenance of cell viability to be overcome. But despite all of these, bioreactors, when combined with artificial components, becomes a pragmatic approach for future treatment of liver failure.