Copyright
©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Yiguanjian decoction enhances fetal liver stem/progenitor cell-mediated repair of liver cirrhosis through regulation of macrophage activation state
Ying Xu, Wei-Wei Fan, Wen Xu, Shi-Li Jiang, Gao-Feng Chen, Cheng Liu, Jia-Mei Chen, Hua Zhang, Ping Liu, Yong-Ping Mu
Ying Xu, Wei-Wei Fan, Wen Xu, Shi-Li Jiang, Gao-Feng Chen, Cheng Liu, Jia-Mei Chen, Hua Zhang, Ping Liu, Yong-Ping Mu, Department of Hepatology, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
Ying Xu, Wei-Wei Fan, Wen Xu, Shi-Li Jiang, Gao-Feng Chen, Cheng Liu, Jia-Mei Chen, Hua Zhang, Ping Liu, Yong-Ping Mu, Institute of Liver Diseases, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
Ying Xu, Wei-Wei Fan, Wen Xu, Shi-Li Jiang, Gao-Feng Chen, Cheng Liu, Jia-Mei Chen, Hua Zhang, Ping Liu, Yong-Ping Mu, Key Laboratory of Liver and Kidney Disease of the Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201203, China
Ying Xu, Wei-Wei Fan, Wen Xu, Shi-Li Jiang, Gao-Feng Chen, Cheng Liu, Jia-Mei Chen, Hua Zhang, Ping Liu, Yong-Ping Mu, Clinical Key Laboratory of TCM of Shanghai, Shanghai 201203, China
Author contributions: Mu YP and Liu P designed the research; Xu Y, Fan WW, Xu W, and Chen JM performed the research; Zhang H contributed analytic tools; Chen GF performed pathological analysis; Mu YP, Xu Y, Jiang SL, and Liu C analyzed the data; Mu YP and Xu Y composed the paper.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81173223, No. 81573948, and No. 81874390.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The experimental protocol was approved by the Animal Research Committee of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. 20130132).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines and prepared the manuscript accordingly.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yong-Ping Mu, PhD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Hepatology, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 528 Zhangheng Road, Pudong district, Shanghai 201203, China. ypmu8888@126.com
Telephone: +86-21-20256526 Fax: +86-21-20256521
Received: August 8, 2018
Peer-review started: August 8, 2018
First decision: October 5, 2018
Revised: October 19, 2018
Accepted: October 26, 2018
Article in press: October 26, 2018
Published online: November 14, 2018
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Liver cirrhosis has emerged as a major contributor to the global health burden. Liver transplantation, a recognized treatment for end-stage liver cirrhosis, is limited by a shortage of organs, transplant rejection, high cost, and other problems. Stem cell transplantation is expected to replace liver transplantation, but finding a way to regulate its differentiation in vivo is a key scientific problem. Previous studies have confirmed that Yiguanjian decoction (YGJ) has a strong ability to prevent fibrosis and to promote hepatocyte regeneration, but whether YGJ can affect the differentiation of transplanted liver stem cells is still unclear.
Research motivation
To determine whether YGJ can affect the therapeutic effect of transplanted fetal liver stem/progenitor cells (FLSPCs) and identify possible mechanisms by which it may do so to further identify the active ingredients of YGJ and thus improve the treatment of liver cirrhosis.
Research objectives
To determine whether YGJ can improve the therapeutic efficacy of stem cells for liver cirrhosis, and so provide scientific evidence for YGJ combined with stem cell transplantation for liver cirrhosis.
Research methods
Combination of stem cell transplantation with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) may become a new method for the treatment of end-stage liver cirrhosis.
Research results
We here found that YGJ can enhance FLSPC-mediated repair of liver cirrhosis, and the key mechanism is related to regulation of macrophage activation state. This provides empirical evidence for the treatment of cirrhosis with YGJ. However, the molecular mechanism by which YGJ regulates macrophage activation is still unclear. This is the main question to be answered in the future.
Research conclusions
YGJ enhances FLSPC-mediated repair of cirrhosis through regulation of macrophage activation state, and stem cell transplantation in combination with YGJ may be a suitable treatment for end-stage liver cirrhosis.
Research perspectives
TCM has thousands of years of history and its practitioners have accumulated rich experience in the field of chronic liver disease. If TCM is combined with modern medicine, it may provide a more effective treatment for patients with chronic liver disease.
