Cell-Based Regenerative Therapy for Liver Disease

Abstract

The liver can regenerate itself in response to acute liver damage. However, chronically induced liver dysfunction interferes with the liver regeneration process and increases the risk of onset of more severe hepatic failure, including hepatic cirrhosis and liver cancer. To develop more efficient therapeutics for chronic liver diseases, cell-based regenerative therapies using functional hepatocyte-like cells derived from pluripotent stem cells are actively under investigation. In addition to such stem cell–based approaches, recent studies have revealed that direct cell-fate conversion from fibroblasts into hepatocyte-like cells can be induced by forced expression of particular sets of transcription factors in fibroblasts. This phenomenon is known as “direct reprogramming” and is expected to be a complementary or alternative technology to the stem cell-based regenerative therapies. In this chapter, we briefly summarize the recent progress and future perspectives of studies on reprogramming technologies, which are directed at the development of cell-based regenerative therapies for liver diseases.