Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2012, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (6): 1119-1124.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-8225.2012.06.037

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Prospect and advances in liver stem cells

Wang Nan1, 2, Zou Wei2, Liu Peng1, Cui Zhan-feng3○, Liu Jing1   

  1. 1Centre for Regenerative Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian  116011, Liaoning Province, China; 2School of Life Science, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian  116029, Liaoning Province, China; 3Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, U.K.
  • Received:2011-06-15 Revised:2011-07-26 Online:2012-02-05 Published:2012-02-05
  • Contact: Liu Jing, Professor, Centre for Regenerative Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116011, Liaoning Province, China dngs008@yahoo.com.cn
  • About author:Wang Nan★, Studying for master’s degree, Centre for Regenerative Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116011, Liaoning Province, China; School of Life Science, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, Liaoning Province, China nan_nan4@126.com
  • Supported by:

     the National Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Ministry of Science and Technology*; the National Natural Science Foundation, No.81071009*; the International cooperation Project of Dalian Science and Technology Bureau, No.2009F11GH179*; the Doctor start-up Foundation of Liaoning Science and Techology Bureau, No.20091020*

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The treatment of end-stage liver disease with liver stem cells transplantation has raised the concern in recent years. However, the clinical application is restricted by some technical problems, such as cell shortage, cell dispersion and loss and low differentiation rate after transplation, which will be solved effectively with rapid development of liver stem cells tissue engineering technology.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the progress of liver stem cell tissue engineering and outlook the prospect application.
METHODS: We searched for the related articles in PubMed published from January 1999 and December 2010. The key words were “liver stem cell tissue engineering, three dimensional culture, biodegradable materials, bioreactor” in English. Totally 241 articles were selected primarily, and finally 43 articles met the inclusive requirement.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Three-dimensional culture of cells is proved to be an effective means of cell proliferation in vitro, which will solve liver stem cells shortage in liver tissue engineering. There are big differences in proliferation efficiency and transplantation effect when the different scaffold materials and reactors are used. Therefore it is a crucial technical problem to establish the ideal proliferation conditions of liver stem cells, improve the biocompatibility of scaffold and promote the efficiency of transplantation. Further studies should be done to study the construction of scaffold materials and application of reactors for liver stem cells in the future.

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