Mesenchymal stem cells for liver cirrhosis: problems and prospects / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Studies have shown that under certain conditions, mesenchymal stem cels can be induced to differentiate into hepatocytes and promote local angiogenesis to generate new capilary network and build rich colateral circulation for the purpose of improvement and treatment of liver cirrhosis. OBJECTIVE:To review the latest advances in mesenchymal stem cel transplantation for the treatment of liver cirrhosis. METHODS:PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP databases were searched using keywords of marrow stem cels, hepatic cirrhosis in the title and abstracts for articles addressing mesenchymal stem cel transplantation for liver cirrhosis published from January 2000 to December 2014. Finaly, 53 articles were reviewed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Mesenchymal stem cels have self-replication and multi-directional differentiation potential, and also possess paracrine and immune functions, which are ideal seed cels used for cel replacement therapy. At present, the techniques for isolation, culture, identification andin vitroamplification of mesenchymal stem cels have been quite mature, and animal studies have confirmed that umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cels is safe and effective to treat decompensated cirrhosis, which can fundamentaly treat target organ damage and improve liver function, but there are stil many clinical issues to be resolved.