Fatima A, Malick TS, Khan I, Ishaque A, Salim A. Effect of glycyrrhizic acid and 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid on the differentiation of human umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes. World J Stem Cells 2021; 13(10): 1580-1594 [PMID: 34786159 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i10.1580]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Asmat Salim, PhD, Professor, Stem Cell Laboratory, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Sindh, Pakistan. asmat.salim@iccs.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Cell Biology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
Abiha Fatima, Tuba Shakil Malick, Irfan Khan, Aisha Ishaque, Asmat Salim, Stem Cell Laboratory, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Sindh, Pakistan
Author contributions: Fatima A performed all experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the first draft; Malick TS and Ishaque A performed part of the experiments and analysis of the data; Khan I provided technical guidance for all experiments and data analysis; Salim A designed the research study, supervised the research and wrote the manuscript in its final form; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Present study was approved by the Independent Ethics Committee, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (IEC, ICCBS) under protocol #: ICCBS/IEC-037-HT-2018/Protocol/1.0.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors confirm that this article has no conflict of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Asmat Salim, PhD, Professor, Stem Cell Laboratory, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Sindh, Pakistan. asmat.salim@iccs.edu
Received: April 13, 2021 Peer-review started: April 13, 2021 First decision: May 12, 2021 Revised: May 25, 2021 Accepted: September 19, 2021 Article in press: September 19, 2021 Published online: October 26, 2021 Processing time: 195 Days and 17.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study focuses on exploring the effect of two triterpenes, glycyrrhizic acid and 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid to enhance the differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into hepatocytes to ensure a potent and valuable cell source for cellular therapy for end-stage liver disease. Preconditioning of human umbilical cord-MSCs with these compounds enhances expression of both early and late hepatic markers, regulated with time of differentiation. The significant expression of hepatocyte markers, the ability to store glycogen, and presence of bi-nucleated cells, suggest successful hepatic differentiation. Preconditioned MSCs may help in the replacement of damaged hepatocytes, and improve liver function post-transplantation in impaired hepatic tissues.
