[Regenerative medicine in liver disease]

Abstract

In spite of dynamic increase of liver remnant mass after partial hepatectomy, liver regeneration is hard to induce under pathological condition. There are several approaches to achieve regenerative medicine for liver diseases, for instance, auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation(APOLT), stem cell mobilization, and cytokine treatment. We propose here the fourth strategy, modification of intracellular signal transduction pathway. The regenerative cytokines, such as interleukin 6 and hepatocyte growth factor, drive several key molecules such as caspases, heat shock proteins, Bcl family, cyclin, etc, mediated by Stat molecules(signal transducers and activators of transcription). The transfection of constitutive active Stat3, which plays key roles in the signal cascade, resulted in similar cytological response to cytokine treatment. We describe possible strategy of liver regeneration from organ to molecular level.