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Updated: May 2, 2026

Isolation and Enrichment of Liver Progenitor Subsets Identified by a Novel Surface Marker Combination
Published on: February 18, 2017
Potentials of regenerative medicine for liver disease
Shinichiro Ogawa1, Shinichi Miyagawa
1Department of Surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan.
Abstract:
Liver transplantation is still the only effective treatment for end-stage liver disease. However, because of the serious worldwide shortage of donated organs, an alternative cellular therapy would be desirable. Animal studies and preclinical trials have indicated that hepatocyte transplantation can serve as an alternative to liver transplantation. Unfortunately, however, the harvesting of hepatocytes is associated with the same problem as organ transplantation, i.e., a lack of a suitable cell source. Therefore, current stem cell technology, which is attempting to establish an unlimited supply of hepatocytes, would facilitate the clinical application of hepatocyte transplantation. This review summarizes current knowledge of embryonic and adult stem cell differentiation into hepatocytes and discusses how liver stem cells could be applied clinically in the future.
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