Welcome to Drijfveren<\/em>. Here, researchers tell people what motivates them to work towards an animal-free future. This time, the spotlight is on Dr. Am\u00e9e Buziau. At Maastricht University she’s working on the development of an animal-free model that should mimic the relationship between fructose and fatty liver disease. Easier said than done, because: \u201cIt is really difficult to study this in humans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Fructose is a sugar that is commonly found in processed foods today and is converted into fat by the liver. Excessive intake can lead to fatty liver disease: the fat builds up in liver cells, causing inflammation and increasing the risk of conditions such as diabetes and hepatitis.<\/p>\n Fatty liver disease is the most common liver disease in the Western world and can eventually lead to liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, or diabetes, so it is important that it is properly researched. Traditionally, this is done with mice, but Am\u00e9e is taking a different approach.<\/p>\n If you know Am\u00e9e\u2019s background, her career will surprise you: she started out in dietetics. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a great interest in nutrition. It wasn\u2019t until I did an internship at a research institute in Auckland during my Nutrition and Dietetics studies that I realized how much I enjoyed it. So I decided to do a Masters to prepare for a scientific career.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2018, Am\u00e9e started her PhD research on fructose in relation to fatty liver disease. \u201cI knew I would have to work with animals. I didn\u2019t like that, but it was part of the job. It has to be said that we also achieved successful results with these animal experiments, but I still had a bad feeling about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Because Am\u00e9e has the ambition to do as little animal testing as possible, she decided to look for alternative models that could replace laboratory animals in her research, together with her supervisor. But that turned out to be easier said than done: \u201cAt the cellular level, there are not many suitable models to study fructose. And in humans it is extra difficult, because then you actually need a liver biopsy. But taking a liver biopsy is very invasive and not without risk and therefore not permitted from an ethical point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, Am\u00e9e came into contact with a group of experts from Leuven. \u201cThey use stem cells from skin biopsies to grow liver cells. We thought: maybe this is a good model for my research!\u201d<\/p>\n But to go to Leuven, Am\u00e9e needed external funding. \u201cResearch is often hampered by subsidies. In science, you are really dependent on funding for your research. So I had to look for funding, and I got it from Proefdiervrij! Thanks to your funding, I was able to go to Leuven and experiment on liver cells that were grown from stem cells.\u201d<\/p>\n The model did not yet work optimally, but Am\u00e9e remains optimistic. \u201cThanks to your funding, I now have the technique at my fingertips, which in turn has contributed to receiving three years of funding from the Diabetes Fund. This will allow me to continue my work. We are now going to optimize the model in the hope of developing a suitable liver model for studying fructose, with the goal of no more laboratory animals in this research and better results for people!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![\"Amee](\"https:\/\/proefdiervrij.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Amee-Buziau-200x200.jpg\" "\\"Amee")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>What is fructose and how does it cause fatty liver disease?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Gradually getting into the lab<\/strong><\/h2>\n
On the hunt for alternatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Dependent on funding<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Proefdiervrij](\"https:\/\/proefdiervrij.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Amee-Buziau-pdv-model-768x1024.jpg\")
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