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World J Transplant. Dec 24, 2017; 7(6): 317-323
Published online Dec 24, 2017. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v7.i6.317
Hepatocyte transplantation: Consider infusion before incision
Ryan D Heath, Furkan Ertem, Bhupinder S Romana, Jamal A Ibdah, Veysel Tahan
Ryan D Heath, Bhupinder S Romana, Jamal A Ibdah, Veysel Tahan, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Furkan Ertem, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the acquisition of data, writing, and revision of this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interests to declare. All authors of this article declare that there is no conflicting interests (including but not limited to commercial, personal, political, intellectual or religious interests) that are related to the work submitted for consideration of publication. The statement of “No conflict of interest” file is signed by each author and attached.
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: Veysel Tahan, MD, FACP, FACG, FESBGH, Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, 1 Hospital Dr, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. tahanv@health.missouri.edu
Telephone: +1-573-8846044 Fax: +1-573-8844595
Received: October 28, 2017
Peer-review started: October 29, 2017
First decision: November 20, 2017
Revised: November 27, 2017
Accepted: December 5, 2017
Article in press: December 6, 2017
Published online: December 24, 2017
Abstract

Human hepatocyte transplantation is undergoing study as a bridge, or even alternative, to orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). This technique has undergone multiple developments over the past thirty years in terms of mode of delivery, source and preparation of cell cultures, monitoring of graft function, and use of immunosuppression. Further refinements and improvements in these techniques will likely allow improved graft survival and function, granting patients higher yield from this technique and potentially significantly delaying need for OLT.

Keywords: Hepatocye, Transplantation, Cell therapy, Liver, Graft, Orthotopic

Core tip: Further human studies involving humans are needed, however, the current collectively suggest progress in terms of improved effectiveness of human hepatocyte transplantation (HTx). With improvements in optimizing delivery technique and assessing proper recipients of livers, monitoring graft function, as well as recognizing and treating graft rejection, HTx may be able to be used more widely in metabolic liver disease and potentially delay necessity of orthotopic liver transplantation.