Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

One of the reasons to limit the liver transplantation is fewer available organs than number of the patients on the waiting list. The liver regeneration might be one of the alternatives of the transplantation. Several clinical studies with employing the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells from blood, adipose tissue or others were reported. Transplantation of those cells might show decline of hepatic reserve function rather than treating conditions of the liver. The objective of adult stem cell transplantations might be to launch “bridge to transplant” strategy rather than treating liver condition. We have shown that human dental pulp stem cell involves potential to treat lethal liver disease. Hence, we have previously treated the biliary liver cirrhosis and acute liver injury in nude rats with transplanting the regenerated liver tissues which were originated from human dental pulp. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been ascertained as one of the most prevailing liver condition. Hence, the objectives of the research was to evaluate the clinical potential of our transplantation protocols using swine model of progressive liver failure developed from NAFLD. After four weeks of transplantation into six swine with the condition, secondary liver in the spleen and the regenerated liver were produced. Epithelial cells of biliary ducts were partially replaced with human cells. Serum albumin level recovered from 1.5 g/dL to over 3.0 g/dL. Other factors, i.e. HPT, choline esterase, collagen type IV, ALT etc were also improved, although any of them in the positive control has not been changed.