Open AccessConcise Review: Liver Regenerative Medicine: From Hepatocyte Transplantation to Bioartificial Livers and Bioengineered Grafts
Author(s) -
Nicolas Clara T.,
Hickey Raymond D.,
Chen Harvey S.,
Mao Shennen A.,
Lopera Higuita Manuela,
Wang Yujia,
Nyberg Scott L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
stem cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.159
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1549-4918
pISSN - 1066-5099
DOI - 10.1002/stem.2500
Subject(s) - regenerative medicine , bioartificial liver device , economic shortage , transplantation , biology , liver disease , hepatocyte , stem cell , cell therapy , liver transplantation , immunology , intensive care medicine , bioinformatics , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , in vitro
Abstract Donor organ shortage is the main limitation to liver transplantation as a treatment for end‐stage liver disease and acute liver failure. 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. S tem C ells 2017;35:42–50