Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Fetal hepatic stem cells (FHSCs) transplantation draws much attention recently in the treatment of acute and chronic liver failure and metabolic liver diseases and expected to replace the liver transplant therapy.
OBJECTIVE: To review the advances on the isolation and identification of FHSCs, FHSCs mediated therapeutic liver repopulation and clinical trial of FHSCs transplantation.
METHODS: A computer-based online retrieval of PubMed database and CBM database was performed with the key words of “fetal hepatic stem cell, transplantation” in both English and Chinese from January 2000 to December 2011. A total of 168 articles were obtained. Following reading titles and abstracts, original articles closely related to FHSCs transplantation with reliable argument and evidence were included. Reviews and articles of repetitive studies and poor quality were excluded. And finally, 31 articles were enrolled in the review according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A unique and specific marker for FHSCs has not been assigned, which brings difficult to the isolation and identification of FHSCs. FHSCs were often enriched by fluorescence-activated cell sorting or magnetic-activated cell sorting techniques. FHSCs had the bipotential differentiation capacity and could extensively repopulate the host liver for a long time without preconditioning. Moreover, FHSCs had low immunogenicity and was resistant to cryopreservation injury which provide theoretical basis for the clinical application. The therapeutic effects of FHSCs transplantation for the treatment of liver cirrhosis have been confirmed. FHSCs as a new source of seed cells have a broad application prospects in the treatment of acute and chronic liver failure and metabolic liver diseases