Liver Stem Cells

Liver transplantation has been regarded as the definitive curative approach for pathologic liver conditions from the acute stage to the chronic end stage for decades. Recently, translational research has been focused on liver stem cell transplantation, using various cell therapies, due to the potential benefit of natural host liver regeneration. Many studies are ongoing utilizing and evaluating the use of either fetal-liver-derived stem cells or oval cells, however many obstacles still remain. Extensive research identifying and characterizimg stem/progenitor cells for potential application to in vitro cell therapy, whereas many questions remain concerning the isolation and identification of adult liver stem cells with adequate capacity for proliferation and the regeneration of injured liver. Recent approaches to liver regeneration include the production of hepatocyte-like cells from other stem cell sources such as mesenchymal stem cells and embryonic stems cells. Another major target for liver regeneration studies include the generation of liver stem cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC) We review the current data concerning characterization of stem cells and progenitor cells for their capacity to support their potential for re-population and regeneration of normal adult liver from liver damaged due to injury and/or disease. KCI Citation Count: 1