Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 28, 2015; 21(36): 10253-10261
Published online Sep 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i36.10253
Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for cirrhosis: Present and future perspectives
Young Woo Eom, Gaeun Kim, Soon Koo Baik
Young Woo Eom, Soon Koo Baik, Cell Therapy and Tissue Engineering Center, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju 220-701, South Korea
Gaeun Kim, College of Nursing - Research Institute for Nursing Science, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, South Korea
Soon Koo Baik, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Wonju 220-701, South Korea
Author contributions: Eom YW and Kim G designed this editorial and wrote the paper, contributed equally to this work; Baik SK reviewed the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by The Yonsei University Future-leading Research Initiative of 2014.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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: Soon Koo Baik, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, 20, Ilsanro, Wonju 220-701, South Korea. baiksk@yonsei.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-33-7411229 Fax: +82-33-7451228
Received: January 7, 2015
Peer-review started: January 7, 2015
First decision: May 18, 2015
Revised: June 1, 2015
Accepted: August 28, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: September 28, 2015
Processing time: 264 Days and 3.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered to be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of cirrhosis because of their potential to differentiate into hepatocytes, their immune-modulatory properties and their ability to secrete trophic factors. Nevertheless, several issues, including the fibrogenic potential of MSCs and their ability to promote pre-existing tumor cell growth, must be carefully considered.