Lorenzini Stefania, Andreone Pietro
Stem Cells. 2007 Sep;25(9):2383-4. doi: 10.1634/stemcells.2007-0056. Epub 2007 May 31.
End-stage liver disease, and in particular human liver cirrhosis, represents a worldwide health problem. Currently, liver transplant is the only effective treatment, but it is affected by many problems, including relative lack of donors, operative damage, risk of rejection, and high costs. Stem cell therapy is very attractive in this setting because it has the potential to help tissue regeneration while providing minimally invasive procedures and few complications. Only a few clinical studies on the administration of bone marrow-derived stem cells to cirrhotic patients have been published up to now. Although preliminary results seem to be encouraging, the number of treated patients is too small and the study design not completely appropriate to demonstrate safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy in liver cirrhosis. Well designed, randomized, controlled studies are needed to confirm preliminary results and eventually clear doubts.
终末期肝病，尤其是人类肝硬化，是一个全球性的健康问题。目前，肝移植是唯一有效的治疗方法，但它受到许多问题的影响，包括供体相对短缺、手术损伤、排斥风险和高昂成本。在这种情况下，干细胞疗法非常有吸引力，因为它有可能帮助组织再生，同时提供微创程序且并发症较少。到目前为止，仅有少数关于向肝硬化患者施用骨髓源性干细胞的临床研究发表。尽管初步结果似乎令人鼓舞，但治疗的患者数量太少，且研究设计并不完全适合证明干细胞疗法在肝硬化中的安全性和有效性。需要设计良好的随机对照研究来证实初步结果并最终消除疑虑。
