The Future Of Liver Cirrhosis Treatment With Stem Cells

Liver diseases, which occur out of infections, or metabolic diseases as well as autoimmune diseases are fatal. Majority of the times, injury to the liver leads to excess scarring of the liver, which is called liver cirrhosis. In this kind of disease, the metabolic functionality and synthetic functionally of the liver is hampered and it also results in greater risk of liver cancer. In western countries this diseases is among the top fatal diseases and the deaths caused by such liver cirrhosis is also rising at a fast pace. Presently, liver transplantation is the only option available for Liver cirrhosis Treatment.

The problem with the conventional Liver cirrhosis Treatment option is the lack of donor organs, as the supply of donor organs is not able to match the increasing demand of organs for transplantation. Other than these, immunosuppression and rejection of donor organs are other complications associated with the traditional treatment options. This is why scientists and doctors across the globe are involved in constant research to develop regenerative treatment options for curing such dangerous disease.

Of late, Stem Cell therapy has progressed at a fast rate and discovery of pluripotent cells is one of the latest findings in the ongoing research. These put forward a promise of generation of unending cells like hepatocyte, which can be used for transplantation in some of the liver diseases. However, there are many challenges in the way of developing stem cell based Liver cirrhosis Treatment, as in this disease the architecture of the liver is disturbed drastically because of excessive collagen deposition. 

The cells, which functions in our liver are known as hepatocytes. When a liver is in healthy condition, these cells divides and multiply in number, as a result, new cells generate to take the place of damaged or dead cells in the liver. When the liver suffers some kind of injury, another kind of cells called the oval cells lends a hand to produce hepatocytes. However, in the case of severe injury to the liver, the process of repairing of damaged cells is affected and scarring of the liver happens. Traditional treatment options like transplantation are very expensive, so researchers are studying the safety, efficiency, and feasibility of Stem Cell therapy that utilize autologous MSCs (Mesenchymal Stem cells) as a possible Liver cirrhosis Treatment. A number of such studies being carried out in different parts of the world have demonstrated that such Stem Cell therapy was able to suppress liver inflammation and also showed improvement in scarring along with replenishment of hepatocytes. This has given a new hope for Liver cirrhosis Treatment in the time to come. In a few clinical trials of Stem Cell therapy, administration of mesenchymal stem cells has proved to be safe and bearable and also displayed positive results in patients suffering from liver cirrhosis.

In the time to come pluripotent stem cells or embryonic cells might be utilized for generating new hepatocytes in lab conditions and then will be transplanted back into the patient whose liver is not able to generate new hepatocytes. Researchers are also exploring another type of Stem Cell therapy where cells from the bone marrow of the patient will be used for repairing the injured liver tissues.