Xuekun Xing¹, Chunhui Zhang²

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered the most promising candidate for therapeutic repair of liver disease due to their effect on immune privilege, self-renewal and multidifferential potency. Recently, there have been a number of advances in the area of the factors that influence liver regeneration as well as the impact of MSCs transplantation on liver regeneration. Moreover, there is important new data on the several factors affect the transplantation efficiency of MSC such as therapeutic pretreatment before MSCs transplantation, the impact of cell number and repeated administration on success, and the implications on the outcome for the various approaches used to transplant the cells. Furthermore, other elements the can influence transplantation success also include transdifferentiation of stem cells, improving the microenvironment for implantation, antioxidant treatments, improving hepatocyte viability and immunomodulation strategies. Similarly, there are a number of important pathways that play a vital role, such as IL-6/STAT3 and Wnt/β-catenin signaling, that can also be modified to improve outcomes. MSCs can effectively contribute to liver regeneration and offer an effective alternative therapy to organ transplantation for the treatment of liver diseases. By developing a better understanding of the factors associated with beneficial outcomes, new strategies for the treatment of liver disease can be developed.