title: Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with end-stage liver disease: a 5-year follow-up study of 48 patients.
abstract: To investigate the long-term therapeutic effect of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with End-stage Liver Disease (ESLD).
  
  
  
  Forty-eight ESLD patients underwent autologous CD34+ stem cell transplantation were retrospectively reviewed. Changes in clinical and biochemical data, complications, and quality of life were monitored at 3, 6, 12, 36, and 60 months following the stem cell transplantation. Liver biopsies were obtained for histopathological analysis using Ishak system.
  
  
  
  Marked improvement in clinical and biochemical data was observed during the long-term follow-up. Serum albumin was significantly increased (p<0.001), while total serum bilirubin, prothrombin time (PT), and international normalized ratio (INR) were all significantly decreased (p<0.001). Ishak inflammation and fibrosis scores were significantly decreased with the increased time (p<0.001). The number of patients with ascites, model of end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, Child-Pugh class, and indocyanine green (ICG) score were all markedly reduced with increased time. Meanwhile, the quality of life score of the patients was significantly increased (p<0.001). Six patients died during the 5-years follow-up, and complications occurred in 17 patients. The incidence of complications was significantly associated with mortality of the patients (p<0.05).
  
  
  
  The study provided the evidence that autologous CD34+ stem cell transplantation could offer a long-term therapeutic benefit to patients with ESLD. The complications occurred during the process was significantly associated with survival of the patients. Future studies on a large cohort of patients are needed to confirm the long-term effect of stem cell therapy on ESLD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Cell Transplantation Center, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China. huangxiaolun@med.uestc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Y-T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: L-Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: H-B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G-M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: L-L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: M-Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: S-P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: X-L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D058625:End Stage Liver Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies