| Abstrakt: |
Liver repopulation with transplanted cells should be of significant interest for multiple genetic and acquired disorders. The regenerative potential of liver cells offers many opportunities for genetic manipulations and cell transplantation research. The general consideration is that use of mature hepatocytes or stem/progenitor cells for this purpose will provide effective ways to ameliorate specific diseases. Recent progress in various aspects of liver-directed cell therapy has been highly promising. For instance, it has become clear that transplanted cells can engraft efficiently and proliferate under suitable conditions to repopulate significant portions of the liver. Moreover, specific disorders can be corrected by hepatocyte transplantation. Also, genetic manipulation of cells before transplantation offers further opportunities for treating diseases. However, a variety of relevant issues still need to be resolved, including the types of cells that will be most efficacious for clinical applications, effective ways to cryopreserve cells for use at short notice, and abrogation of allograft rejection by nontoxic means. Contemplating liver-directed cell therapy for major endocrine disorders such as type 1 diabetes mellitus requires identification of suitable cells that could be modified to induce regulated hormone or enzyme expression. Recent studies suggest that stem/progenitor cell populations isolated from the fetal human liver will be effective for this purpose. Of course, advances in stem cell biology raise hopes for generating alternative sources of cells in view of the limited supply of adult human organs, which should further facilitate applications of liver cell therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
