Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The hepatic stem cells originated from embryo or hepatic oval cells were always studied actively in basic researches. But the other stem cells from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow are paid more attention in clinical study. There is no agreement on differentiation of varied hepatic stem cells.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the potentiality of directed differentiation of hepatic stem cells from different origins.
METHODS: PubMed databases and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were retrieved for articles published from January 1990 to October 2011 in English and Chinese respectively with the searching words of differentiation, hepatic stem cell or liver stem cell. Articles in the same research field published in the authoritative journals or recently published (past 3 years) were included. Forty-two articles were included in the final analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The majority of basic studies of hepatic stem cells focus on embryo-derived hepatic stem cells or hepatic oval cells; while in the clinical studies, umbilical cord- and bone marrow-derived hepatic stem cells have been paid more attention. There is no agreement on differentiation potential of hepatic stem cells from various origins. This paper summarizes the difference of differentiation potential of hepatic stem cells from different origins and investigates the decisive effect of different inductors so as to provide strong evidence for further screening reliable inductors and improving directed induced differentiation. More basic studies involving hepatic stem cells are expected to meet clinical requirements. This would help to achieve agreement in origins and inductors of hepatic stem cells and establish uniform standards to collect stem cells or uniform clinical operation guideline.