Alejandra Meza-Ríos, Juan Armendáriz-Borunda, Ana Sandoval-Rodríguez
Department of Molecular Biology and Genomics, Health Sciences University Center, Institute for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy, University of Guadalajara, Sierra Mojada 950, Colonia Independencia, Guadalajara, Jalisco 44340, México.
Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2015 Jun;9(6):837-50. doi: 10.1586/17474124.2015.1016913. Epub 2015 Mar 6.
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.
肝脏疾病是全球主要的健康问题，因为在大多数国家，它们通常是主要死因，给公共卫生系统带来了高昂成本。如今，大多数肝脏疾病尚无有效的现有疗法，由于器官供应、成本和移植排斥风险，肝移植并不常见。因此，已经开发了肝脏疾病的替代疗法，包括基于细胞的疗法。干细胞（SCs）的特点是具有自我更新能力、无限增殖以及在特定条件下分化为具有特殊功能的组织或器官特异性细胞。基于细胞的肝脏疾病疗法在实验模型中已取得成功，显示出抗炎、抗纤维化和再生作用。如今，使用干细胞治疗肝脏疾病的临床试验数量不断增加，那些已发表的试验取得了良好效果，这促使我们认为干细胞在短期内将具有潜在的临床应用价值。
