Open AccessClinical applications of hepatocyte transplantation
Author(s) -
Giada Pietrosi,
Giovanni Vizzini,
Salvatore Gruttadauria,
Bruno Gridelli
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
world journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 2219-2840
pISSN - 1007-9327
DOI - 10.3748/wjg.15.2074
Subject(s) - liver transplantation , economic shortage , transplantation , liver disease , hepatocyte , medicine , disease , intensive care medicine , bioinformatics , pathology , biology , in vitro , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , government (linguistics)
The shortage of organ donors is a problem worldwide, with approximately 15% of adult patients with life-threatening liver diseases dying while on the waiting list. The use of cell transplantation for liver disease is an attempt to correct metabolic defects, or to support liver function as a bridge to liver transplantation and, as such, has raised a number of expectations. Most of the available studies briefly reported here focus on adult hepatocyte transplantation (HT), and the results are neither reproducible nor comparable, because the means of infusion, amount of injected cells and clinical variability differ among the studies. To better understand the specific role of HT in the management of end-stage liver disease, it is important that controlled studies, designed on the principles of evidence-based medicine, be done in order to guarantee the reproducibility of results.