Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2015; 21(43): 12334-12350
Published online Nov 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i43.12334
Published online Nov 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i43.12334
Stem cell-based regenerative opportunities for the liver: State of the art and beyond
Eleftheria Tsolaki, Evangelia Yannaki, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, Hematology Department-BMT Unit, George Papanicolaou Hospital, 57010 Thessaloniki, Greece
Evangelia Yannaki, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-5852, United States
Author contributions: Tsolaki E searched the literature, analyzed the data, and provided the first draft of the paper; Yannaki E designed and conceived the review; both authors critically discussed the content and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they do not have anything to disclose regarding financial conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Evangelia Yannaki, MD, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, Hematology Department-BMT Unit, George Papanicolaou Hospital, 57010 Thessaloniki, Greece. eyannaki@u.washington.edu
Telephone: +30-231-3307518 Fax: +30-231-3307521
Received: June 3, 2015
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 16, 2015
Accepted: October 17, 2015
Article in press: October 20, 2015
Published online: November 21, 2015
Processing time: 168 Days and 10.9 Hours
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 16, 2015
Accepted: October 17, 2015
Article in press: October 20, 2015
Published online: November 21, 2015
Processing time: 168 Days and 10.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for end-stage liver diseases, but its application is limited mainly due to donor shortage. In order to fulfil the unmet medical needs in the field, alternative, cell-based therapies for the treatment of end-stage hepatic diseases are under investigation. This review aims to summarize the state of the art on stem cell-based approaches towards liver regeneration as well as to critically discuss and highlight new perspectives and challenges.