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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2019; 25(9): 1037-1049
Published online Mar 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i9.1037
Liver stem cells: Plasticity of the liver epithelium
Atsunori Tsuchiya, Wei-Yu Lu
Atsunori Tsuchiya, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate school of medical and dental sciences, Niigata University, Chuo-ku, Niigata 951-8510, Japan
Wei-Yu Lu, Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Tsuchiya A and Lu WY contributed equally to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts-of-interest related to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that 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/
Corresponding author: Wei-Yu Lu, PhD, Research Fellow, Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. w.lu.3@bham.ac.uk
Telephone: +44-121-4146854 Fax: +44-121-4158701
Received: October 25, 2018
Peer-review started: October 26, 2018
First decision: November 29, 2018
Revised: January 21, 2019
Accepted: January 26, 2019
Article in press: January 26, 2019
Published online: March 7, 2019
Processing time: 133 Days and 10.3 Hours
Abstract

The liver has a high regenerative capacity after acute liver injury, but this is often impaired during chronic liver injury. The existence of a dedicated liver stem cell population that acts as a source of regeneration during chronic liver injury has been controversial. Recent advances in transgenic models and cellular reprogramming have provided new insights into the plasticity of the liver epithelium and directions for the development of future therapies. This article will highlight recent findings about the cellular source of regeneration during liver injury and the advances in promoting liver regeneration.

Keywords: Liver regeneration; Stem cells; Cellular plasticity

Core tip: There have been controversies regarding the existence of a true liver stem cell population. Nevertheless, more evidence is beginning to reveal that cellular plasticity in the liver plays a role in liver regeneration. This mini-review highlights recent findings about plasticity in the liver epithelium.