title: Clinical uses of liver stem cells.
abstract: Liver transplantation offers a definitive cure for many liver and metabolic diseases. However, the complex invasive procedure and paucity of donor liver graft organs limit its clinical applicability. Liver stem cells provide a potentially limitless source of cells that would be useful for a variety of clinical applications. These stem cells or hepatocytes generated from them can be used in cellular transplantation, bioartificial liver devices and drug testing in the development of new drugs. In this chapter, we review the technical aspects of clinical applications of liver stem cells and the progress made to date in the clinical setting. The difficulties and challenges of realizing the potential of these cells are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. mdcdyy@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: Yock Young
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Dan
mesh_terms: D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D008115:Liver Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D019164:Liver, Artificial / Q000639:trends*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*