Cell therapy in liver disease

Abstract

The growing incidence of liver diseases worldwide requires increased numbers of liver transplant and leads to an ongoing shortage of donor livers. To meet the huge demand, various alternative approaches are being investigated including, hepatic cell transplantation, artificial devices and bioprinting of the organ it-
self.. On the other hand , immunomodulatory effects of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissues in liver transplantation has been proposed. Moreover liver transplantation, stem cells have been used in the treatment of liver cirrhosis as regeneration treatment.Differentiation of human stem cells to hepatocytes has become a major interest in the field of stem cell research and has progressed greatly.

Other application of stem cells as regeneration approach has been after extended liver resection in order to avoid the “small for size” damage in the remaining liver tissue.  Finally, at the same time, use of decellularized organ matrices and 3 D printing are emerging cutting-edge technologies for tissue engineering, opening up new paths for liver regenerative medicine. There have been big efforts trying to find the best type of cells used in these approach. Adult hepatocytes are the preferred cell sources, but they have limited availability, are difficult to isolate, propagate poor and undergo rapid functional deterioration in vitro. Thus, there are many studies investigating how to improve culture condition for hepatocytes, providing adequate extracellular matrix as well as identifying new and different cell sources.