Zhang CY, Liu S, Yang M. Treatment of liver fibrosis: Past, current, and future. World J Hepatol 2023; 15(6): 755-774 [PMID: 37397931 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i6.755]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ming Yang, DVM, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Room 2203, NexGen Precision Building, 1030 Hitt Street, Columbia, MO 65211, United States. yangmin@health.missouri.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Hepatol. Jun 27, 2023; 15(6): 755-774 Published online Jun 27, 2023. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i6.755
Treatment of liver fibrosis: Past, current, and future
Chun-Ye Zhang, Shuai Liu, Ming Yang
Chun-Ye Zhang, Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
Shuai Liu, Department of Radiology,The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China
Ming Yang, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
Author contributions: Zhang CY, Liu S, and Yang M designed and collected data, wrote, revised, and finalized the manuscript; all authors contributed equally and shared the first authorship.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming Yang, DVM, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Room 2203, NexGen Precision Building, 1030 Hitt Street, Columbia, MO 65211, United States. yangmin@health.missouri.edu
Received: March 12, 2023 Peer-review started: March 12, 2023 First decision: March 23, 2023 Revised: April 1, 2023 Accepted: April 18, 2023 Article in press: April 18, 2023 Published online: June 27, 2023
Core Tip
Core Tip: Liver fibrosis accompanies the progression of chronic liver diseases independent of their etiologies. The initiation and progression of liver fibrosis are mainly driven by liver inflammation, cell death, and metabolic dysregulation, which cause the activation of hepatic stellate cells and excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins. Without effective treatments, liver fibrosis can lead to cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. To date, current therapeutic options for liver fibrosis are limited to prevent the initial causing factors for liver inflammation, hepatocyte cell death, and oxidative stress. However, the reverse of liver fibrosis is slowly and frequently impossible for advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. To avoid the life-threatening stage of liver fibrosis, anti-fibrotic treatments including biological, medicines, dietary change, and behavior prevention are needed, especially for combined therapy.
