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Abstract
Cirrhosis represents a late stage of progressive hepatic fibrosis. It is generally considered to be irreversible in its advanced stages at which point the only option may be liver transplantation. Patients with cirrhosis are susceptible to a variety of complications and their life expectancy is markedly reduced.
Stem cells are cells that have clonogenic and self renewing capabilities and that differentiate into multiple cell lineages (Weissman IL.; 2000) The classic paradigm of stem cell differentiation restricted to its organ specific lineage is being challenged by the suggestion that adult stem cells including haematopoietic Stem cells retain a previously unrecognized degree of developmental plasticity that allow them to differentiate across boundaries of lineage tissue (Quesenberry PJ, 2002)
Liver was one of the earliest tissues recognized as having potential contribution to differentiated cells by bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrow stem cells have been induced to form hepatocytes in culture (Miyazaki M. et al., 2002).
In vivo bone marrow stem cells were able to incorporate into liver as hepatocytes and rescue mice from a liver enzyme deficiency, and restore normal liver function (Lagasse E et al.; 2000) Studies showed that similar repopulation of liver from bone marrow stem cells could take place in humans (Theise ND. Et al.; 2000)