Liver Regenerative Medicine: From Hepatocyte Transplantation to Bioartificial Livers and Bioengineered Grafts
Donor organ shortage is the main limitation to liver transplantation as a treatment for end-stage liver disease (ESLD) and acute liver failure (ALF). Liver regenerative medicine may in the future offer an alternative form of therapy for these diseases, be it through cell transplantation, bioartifici...
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Published in | Stem cells (Dayton, Ohio) Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 42 - 50 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
02.10.2016
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Donor organ shortage is the main limitation to liver transplantation as a
treatment for end-stage liver disease (ESLD) and acute liver failure (ALF).
Liver regenerative medicine may in the future offer an alternative form of
therapy for these diseases, be it through cell transplantation, bioartificial
liver (BAL) devices, or bioengineered whole organ liver transplantation. All
three strategies have shown promising results in the past decade. However,
before they are incorporated into widespread clinical practice, the ideal cell
type for each treatment modality must be found, and an adequate amount of
metabolically active, functional cells must be able to be produced. Research is
ongoing in hepatocyte expansion techniques, use of xenogeneic cells, and
differentiation of stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs). HLCs are a
few steps away from clinical application, but may be very useful in
individualized drug development and toxicity testing, as well as disease
modeling. Finally, safety concerns including tumorigenicity and xenozoonosis
must also be addressed before cell transplantation, BAL devices, and
bioengineered livers occupy their clinical niche. This review aims to highlight
the most recent advances and provide an updated view of the current state of
affairs in the field of liver regenerative medicine. |
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ISSN: | 1066-5099 1549-4918 |
DOI: | 10.1002/stem.2500 |