The Use of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for the Study and Treatment of Liver Diseases.

The Use of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for the Study and Treatment of Liver Diseases. Curr Protoc Toxicol. 2016;67:14.13.1-14.13.27 Authors: Hansel MC, Davila JC, Vosough M, Gramignoli R, Skvorak KJ, Dorko K, Marongiu F, Blake W, Strom SC Abstract Liver disease is a major global health concern. Liver cirrhosis is one of the leading causes of death in the world and currently the only therapeutic option for end-stage liver disease (e.g., acute liver failure, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, cholestatic diseases, metabolic diseases, and malignant neoplasms) is orthotropic liver transplantation. Transplantation of hepatocytes has been proposed and used as an alternative to whole organ transplant to stabilize and prolong the lives of patients in some clinical cases. Although these experimental therapies have demonstrated promising and beneficial results, their routine use remains a challenge due to the shortage of donor livers available for cell isolation, variable quality of those tissues, the potential need for lifelong immunosuppression in the transplant recipient, and high costs. Therefore, new therapeutic strategies and more reliable clinical treatments are urgently needed. Recent and continuous technological advances in the development of stem cells suggest they may be beneficial in this respect. In this review, we summarize the history of stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology in the context of hepatic differ...
Source: Current Protocols in Toxicology - Category: Toxicology Tags: Curr Protoc Toxicol Source Type: research