Hepatic Stem Cell

摘要

The liver in an animal adult healthy body maintains a balance between cell renew and cell loss. The cell damage can stimulate the new cell growth and in liver it is hepatocyte self-replication. The transplanted hepatocyte can undergo clonal expansion which shows that the hepatocytes themselves can play the function as stem cells in the liver. Severe liver injury can activate a potential stem cell compartment located within the intrahepatic biliary tree, giving rise to cords of bipotential within the lobules that can differentiate into hepatocytes and biliary epithelial cells. A third population of stem cells with hepatic potential resides in the bone marrow; these haematopoietic stem cells can contribute to regeneration and restore normal liver function.