title: Stem cells for end stage liver disease: how far have we got?
abstract: End stage liver disease (ESLD) is a health problem worldwide. Liver transplantation is currently the only effective therapy, but its many drawbacks include a shortage of donors, operative damage, risk of rejection and in some cases recidivism of the pre-transplant disease. These factors account for the recent growing interest in regenerative medicine. Experiments have sought to identify an optimal source of stem cells, sufficient to generate large amounts of hepatocytes to be used in bioartificial livers or injected in vivo to repair the diseased organ. This update aims to give non-stem cell specialists an overview of the results obtained to date in this fascinating field of biomedical research.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica, Via Massarenti 9, Bologna, Italy. stefania.lorenzini2@unibo.it
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lorenzini
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gitto
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grandini
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andreone
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernardi
mesh_terms: D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000637:transplantation; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D008115:Liver Regeneration; D019164:Liver, Artificial / Q000639:trends; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000639:trends; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*