Center for Engineering in Medicine and Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2009 Dec;14(6):667-73. doi: 10.1097/MOT.0b013e3283328070.
The capacity of the liver to regenerate and maintain a constant size despite injury is unique. However, the exact mechanisms are not completely clear. Cell transplantation has been proposed as an alternative treatment of liver diseases. Recent progress has been reported on the generation of stem/progenitor cells that may differentiate toward the hepatic lineage. However, it is currently difficult to determine which of the stem/progenitor cell populations are the best for therapy of a given disease.
The limited access to donor human hepatocytes has led to a great interest in the generation of hepatocyte-like cells. Several potential cell sources have been identified. However, general standardization of the methods to evaluate these cells is particularly important for the promise of stem/progenitor-derived hepatocyte-based therapies. Moreover, innovations aimed at improving hepatocyte delivery, survival, and engraftment have recently opened the field of organ engineering that may improve liver repopulation.
Here we review current evidence reported from the perspective of potential clinical applications of different hepatic cell sources with repopulation capacities and the future perspectives and tools that can facilitate the translation of laboratory work into clinical success.
肝脏具有再生和维持恒定大小的能力，这是其独特之处。然而，确切的机制尚不完全清楚。细胞移植已被提议作为治疗肝脏疾病的一种替代方法。最近有报道称，干细胞/祖细胞可以分化为肝系细胞。然而，目前很难确定哪种干细胞/祖细胞群最适合治疗特定疾病。
供体人类肝细胞的有限供应导致人们对生成肝样细胞产生了浓厚的兴趣。已经确定了几种潜在的细胞来源。然而，对于基于干细胞/祖细胞的肝细胞治疗方法的前景而言，特别重要的是对这些细胞进行评估的方法的一般标准化。此外，旨在提高肝细胞递送、存活和植入的创新最近开辟了器官工程领域，这可能改善肝脏再灌注。
在这里，我们从具有再灌注能力的不同肝源细胞的潜在临床应用的角度综述了当前的证据，并讨论了未来的观点和工具，这些观点和工具可以促进实验室工作向临床成功的转化。
