Clinical Hepatocyte Transplantation

Abstract

A severe shortage of suitable allograft is a long-standing and worldwide problem for the patients who are waiting for organ transplantation. Hepatocyte transplantation has been proposed as an alternative therapeutic approach for liver disease patients to address these urgent and unmet medical needs. The cell replacement approach does not replace the orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), but rather complement OLT especially for the patients who are not required whole liver replacement such as congenital metabolic disorders. This review article summarizes current knowledge and limitations of clinical hepatocyte transplantation and aims to advance our understanding towards the goal of developing novel cell replacement therapies for the patients who are on the OLT waiting list.