title: Engineering of human hepatocyte lines for cell therapies in humans: prospects and remaining hurdles.
abstract: Hepatocyte-based biological therapies are increasingly envisioned for temporary support in acute liver failure and provision of specific-liver functions in liver-based metabolic deficiency. One of the hurdles to develop such therapies is severe shortage of human livers for hepatocyte isolation. To address the issue, we have focused on reversible immortalization of human hepatocytes. Such technology can allow rapid preparation of functional and uniform human hepatocytes. Here we present our strategy to construct transplantable human hepatocyte cell lines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Japan. immortal@md.okayama-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kobayashit
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000637:transplantation*; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000145:classification; D013552:Swine