Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Sep 26, 2024; 16(9): 846-853
Published online Sep 26, 2024. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v16.i9.846
Innovative mesenchymal stem cell treatments for fatty liver disease
Fei-Qiong Gao, Jia-Qi Zhu, Xu-Dong Feng
Fei-Qiong Gao, Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Jia-Qi Zhu, Laboratory Medicine Center, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, People’s Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China
Xu-Dong Feng, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China
Co-first authors: Fei-Qiong Gao and Jia-Qi Zhu.
Author contributions: Gao FQ and Zhu JQ made equal contributions to this study. Gao FQ and Zhu JQ prepared and wrote the manuscript; Feng XD wrote and revised the manuscript; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for 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 NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xu-Dong Feng, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, No. 57 Xingning Road, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China. xdfeng@zju.edu.cn
Received: July 22, 2024
Revised: August 26, 2024
Accepted: September 9, 2024
Published online: September 26, 2024
Processing time: 63 Days and 22.1 Hours
Abstract

The incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is increasing year by year due to changes in the contemporary environment and dietary structure, and is an important public health problem worldwide. There is an urgent need to continuously improve the understanding of their disease mechanisms and develop novel therapeutic strategies. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown promise as a potential therapeutic strategy in therapeutic studies of NAFLD and ALD. NAFLD and ALD have different triggers and their specific mechanisms of disease progression are different, but both involve disease processes such as hepatocellular steatosis and potential fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma. MSCs have metabolic regulatory, anti-apoptotic, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects that together promote liver injury repair and functional recovery, and have demonstrated positive results in preclinical studies. This editorial is a continuum of Jiang et al’s review focusing on the advantages and limitations of MSCs and their derivatives as therapeutics for NAFLD and ALD. They detail how MSCs attenuate the progression of NAFLD by modulating molecular pathways involved in glucolipid metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and fibrosis. Based on recent advances, we discuss MSCs and their derivatives as therapeutic strategies for NAFLD and ALD, providing useful information for their clinical application.

Keywords: Alcohol-associated liver disease; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Mesenchymal stem cells; Cell therapy; Inflammation

Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their derivatives are a promising therapeutic approach for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcohol-associated liver disease. MSCs, which come from diverse sources and are of low immunogenicity, can attenuate disease progression by modulating key molecular pathways, such as glycolipid metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrosis. In addition, derivatives of MSCs are also considered as a therapeutic strategy due to their ability to retain some of the beneficial effects of MSCs while reducing the risks inherent in cell therapy. However, further studies are needed to emphasize their important mechanistic role in liver injury repair. Refining protocols for the clinical application of MSCs under the prerequisite of a well-defined mechanistic understanding may allow utilizing the full benefits of MSCs in the treatment of liver disease to enhance liver reparability and provide new hope for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcohol-associated liver disease.