Hepatocyte transplantation in rats with decompensated cirrhosis

Hepatocyte transplantation improves the survival of laboratory animals with experimentally induced acute liver failure and the physiological abnormalities associated with liver‐based metabolic deficiencies. The role of hepatocyte transplantation in treating decompensated liver cirrhosis, however, has not been studied in depth. To address this issue, cirrhosis was induced using phenobarbital and carbon tetrachloride (CCL4 ) and animals were studied only when evidence of liver failure did not improve when CCL4 was held for 4 weeks. Animals received intrasplenic transplantation of syngeneic rat hepatocytes (G1); intraperitoneal transplantation of syngeneic rat hepatocytes (G2); intraperitoneal transplantation of a cellular homogenate of syngeneic rat hepatocytes (G3); intraperitoneal transplantation of syngeneic rat bone marrow cells (G4); or intrasplenic injection of Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM) (G5). After transplantation, body weight and serum albumin levels deteriorated over time in all control (G2‐G5) animals but did not deteriorate in animals receiving intrasplenic hepatocyte transplantation (G1) (P < .01). Prothrombin time (PT), total bilirubin, serum ammonia, and hepatic encephalopathy score were also significantly improved toward normal in animals receiving intrasplenic hepatocyte transplantation (P < .01). More importantly, survival was prolonged after a single infusion of hepatocytes and a second infusion prolonged survival from 15 to 128 days (P < .01). Thus, hepatocyte transplantation can improve liver function and prolong the survival of rats with irreversible, decompensated cirrhosis and may be useful in the treatment of cirrhosis in humans.