title: Translation of amnion stem cells to the clinic.
abstract: Cellular therapy for liver disease has been available in the clinic for more than 20 years, yet remarkably few patients receive this experimental therapy. Reasons for the small number of transplants performed are partially related to access to useful liver tissue and the difficulty with the isolation of viable cells. Stem cell sources of hepatocytes could theoretically relieve these obstacles to therapy if large numbers of functional hepatocytes could be generated and transplanted without risk of tumorigenicity. To date, there are no reports of stem cell sources with all of these characteristics, despite claims otherwise. Here we report the results of preclinical studies with appropriate animals models of metabolic liver disease and acute liver failure, and their correction by the transplantation of human amnion epithelial stem cells. The encouraging results of the preclinical studies have motivated the movement of isolation and banking of these cells to good manufacturing practice conditions so that the cells can be used in the clinic for transplantation of patients with liver disease.
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Pathology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute , Stockholm, Sweden .
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Strom
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Skvorak
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gramignoli
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marongiu
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miki
mesh_terms: D000650:Amnion / Q000166:cytology; D064987:Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000191:economics*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical