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Mesenchymal stromal cells in hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis: from pathogenesis to treatment

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 20, pages 583–599 (2023)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 15 May 2023

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Abstract

Hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis is a significant health burden worldwide, resulting in liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and accounting for many deaths each year. The pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis is very complex, which makes treatment challenging. Endogenous mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been shown to play pivotal roles in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis. Paradoxically, exogenous MSCs have also been used in clinical trials for liver cirrhosis, and their effectiveness has been observed in most completed clinical trials. There are still many issues to be resolved to promote the use of MSCs in the clinic in the future. In this review, we will examine the controversial role of MSCs in the pathogenesis and treatment of hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis. We also investigated the clinical trials involving MSCs in liver cirrhosis, summarized the parameters that need to be standardized, and discussed how to promote the use of MSCs from a clinical perspective.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFA0107500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 82173276, 81972599, 81930085, 82073032, 82073037, and 81872243) and Grant No. 2022YFA0807300.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Xue Yang, Qing Li, Wenting Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tumor Immunology and Gene Therapy Center, Third Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Xue Yang, Wenting Liu, Chen Zong, Lixin Wei & Zhipeng Han

  2. Key Laboratory on Signaling Regulation and Targeting Therapy of Liver Cancer, Ministry of Education, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital/National Center for Liver Cancer, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Xue Yang, Wenting Liu, Chen Zong, Lixin Wei & Zhipeng Han

  3. The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Institutes for Translational Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Key Laboratory of Stem Cells and Medical Biomaterials of Jiangsu Province, Medical College of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215000, China

    Xue Yang & Yufang Shi

  4. Department of Experimental Medicine, TOR, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Xue Yang & Yufang Shi

  5. CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Qing Li

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The original online version of this article was revised: In this article the legends for all the figures were inadvertently omitted. The original article has been corrected.

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Yang, X., Li, Q., Liu, W. et al. Mesenchymal stromal cells in hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis: from pathogenesis to treatment. Cell Mol Immunol 20, 583–599 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-023-00983-5

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