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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2016; 22(1): 24-36
Published online Jan 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i1.24
Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells: A promising strategy to manage alcoholic liver disease
Fernando Ezquer, Flavia Bruna, Sebastián Calligaris, Paulette Conget, Marcelo Ezquer
Fernando Ezquer, Flavia Bruna, Sebastián Calligaris, Paulette Conget, Marcelo Ezquer, Centro de Medicina Regenerativa, Facultad de Medicina, Clínica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago 7710162, Chile
Author contributions: Ezquer F, Bruna F, Calligaris S, Conget P, and Ezquer M analyzed the literature and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by No. Fondef Ca13i10088 and No. Fondecyt 1150589.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
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: Dr. Marcelo Ezquer, Centro de Medicina Regenerativa, Facultad de Medicina, Clínica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo, Av. Las Condes 12438, Santiago 7710162, Chile. mezquer@udd.cl
Telephone: +56-2-23279425 Fax: +56-2-22999306
Received: May 15, 2015
Peer-review started: May 20, 2015
First decision: July 14, 2015
Revised: August 6, 2015
Accepted: October 13, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: January 7, 2016
Abstract

Chronic alcohol consumption is a major cause of liver disease. The term alcoholic liver disease (ALD) refers to a spectrum of mild to severe disorders including steatosis, steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. With limited therapeutic options, stem cell therapy offers significant potential for these patients. In this article, we review the pathophysiologic features of ALD and the therapeutic mechanisms of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells, also referred to as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), based on their potential to differentiate into hepatocytes, their immunomodulatory properties, their potential to promote residual hepatocyte regeneration, and their capacity to inhibit hepatic stellate cells. The perfect match between ALD pathogenesis and MSC therapeutic mechanisms, together with encouraging, available preclinical data, allow us to support the notion that MSC transplantation is a promising therapeutic strategy to manage ALD onset and progression.

Keywords: Alcoholic liver disease, Cellular therapy, Alcoholic steatohepatitis, Hepatic function recovery, Mesenchymal stem cells

Core tip: Chronic alcohol consumption is a major cause of liver disease. Stem cells, in particular multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), have been envisioned as a promising tool for the development of therapeutic strategies to treat alcoholic liver diseases (ALD). The advantages of MSC include the regulation of exacerbated inflammatory process, their differentiation into hepatocytes, the production of trophic factors that prevent the apoptosis of parenchymal cells, and the induction of the proliferation of endogenous progenitors. Here, we revise the pathophysiology of ALD to identify therapeutic targets for MSCs. Also, we discuss the rationale to propose an MSC-based therapy to treat ALD.