Novel strategies for liver therapy using stem cells

The clinical need Liver disease is an increasing clinical burden, causing over 10 000 deaths last year in the UK alone (http://www.britishlivertrust.org.uk). Liver insufficiency describes the clinical situation in which cumulative (chronic) or one-off massive (acute) insults exceed the liver's normal physiological capacity to functionally regenerate. Untreated, liver insufficiency invariably leads to death. The current gold standard of care in this setting is whole organ transplantation. Due to the increasing burden of disease within the population, however, the number of patients requiring transplantation far exceeds the number of available donor organs. As a result, many patients with liver insufficiency die prematurely.1 Liver cell therapy-intra vs. extra hepatic The liver is composed of several cell types (endothelial cells, stellate cells, biliary ductal cells, Kupffer cells and natural killer cells) which together provide a supportive niche for the principle cell type—the hepatocyte.2 Treatment...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Leading article Source Type: research