Cell therapy for liver diseases: current medicine and future promises

Abstract

Liver diseases are a major health problem worldwide since they usually represent the main causes of death in most countries, causing excessive costs to public health systems. Nowadays, there are no efficient current therapies for most hepatic diseases and liver transplant is infrequent due to the availability of organs, cost and risk of transplant rejection. Therefore, alternative therapies for liver diseases have been developed, including cell-based therapies. Stem cells (SCs) are characterized by their self-renewing capacity, unlimited proliferation and differentiation under certain conditions into tissue- or organ-specific cells with special functions. Cell-based therapies for liver diseases have been successful in experimental models, showing anti-inflammatory, antifibrogenic and regenerative effects. Nowadays, clinical trials using SCs for liver pathologies are increasing in number, and those that have reached publication have achieved favorable effects, encouraging us to think that SCs will have a potential clinical use in a short time.

Keywords:

• cell therapy
• clinical trials
• fibrosis
• liver disease
• progenitor cells
• stem cells

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending or royalties.

Key issues

• Different types of cell-base therapies have been used in liver disease, including hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells from different sources, adult hepatocytes, embryonic stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.

• Stem cells can differentiate in vitro and in vivo into hepatocyte-like cells.

• Stem cells have shown anti-inflammatory, antifibrogenic and regenerative effects in vitro and in vivo.

• Cell-based therapies have reduced fibrotic tissue in animal models and patients with liver cirrhosis.

Notes