BACKGROUND: Mobilizing autologous or extraneous bone marrow-derived liver stem cells may promote liver regeneration, however, its safety before the large scale clinical application needs further evaluation.OBJECTIVE: Bone marrow-derived liver stem cells (BDLSCs) were induced by culturing the rat bone marrow mesenchymal cells in the medium containing 5% cholestatic sera, and then were implanted into nude mice to observe the tumorigenicity. METHODS: Rat bone marrow mesenchymal cells (BMSCs) were isolated and incubated in the medium containing 5% cholestatic sera. Immunofluorescent stain was used to detect the expression of albumin, alpha-fetoprotein and cytokeratin18 by the cultured cells. Glycogen and urea synthesis by these cells were analyzed, respectively. BDLSCs following 14 days of culture were incubated in the skin of nude mice to observe neoplasia in local site. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Rat BMSCs survived in the medium containing 5% cholestatic serum and formed into small colonies on the fourth day after culture. Seven days later, the colonies expanded and there appeared some polygonal cells in the peripheral area. About 14 days later, these polygonal cells were confluent and presented the shape of cobblestone. Immunofluorescent stain showed that these cells expressed cytokeratin18, albumin and alpha-fetoprotein. Staining for glycogen displayed that glycogen granules were seen in cells. From 12 to15 days after culture, urea nitrogen concentrations in the medium were gradually increased. Rat BDLSCs were incubated in the skin of nude mice. Thirty days later, no neoplasia was found in the local site, and the tissue structure was normal. This result indicated that rat BDLSCs induced with the medium containing 5% cholestatic serum might have not tumorigenicity.

Primary liver cancer (liver cancer) is one of the main indications of liver transplantation in China. Nevertheless, the 5-year survival rate of liver transplant recipients is lower than 50%. Recurrence and metastasis after operation are the main causes affecting the long-term survival of the recipients. At present, immunotherapy, represented by programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1)/programmed cell death protein-ligand 1(PD-L1) immune checkpoint inhibitor, has achieved remarkable clinical efficacy in the treatment of middle-stage and advanced liver cancer. However, whether it can be applied in recipients with recurrence and metastasis after liver transplantation for liver cancer remains controversial. The main reason is that it may cause acute rejection at the same time. In this article, the research progresses on the application of immunotherapy in recipients with recurrence and metastasis after liver transplantation for liver cancer were reviewed, aiming to improve the survival rate of recipients undergoing liver transplantation forliver cancer.

Organ transplantation is one of the effective methods for the treatment of end-stage diseases, but the lack of donors has hindered the development of organ transplantation. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can improve the hypoxia and hypoperfusion of organs, shorten the warm ischemia time, and maintain the function of donor organs effectively, in case of emergency or donor hemodynamic instability. It helps to make effective use of donor organs and benefit patients who are in urgent need of organ transplants. This article summarized the progress on application of ECMO in donor maintenance and provided suggestions for its application in organ transplantation.

PURPOSE: Intestinal dysfunction is one of the most common complications in patients after abdominal surgery. Daikenchuto (DKT), a traditional herbal medicine, is recently employed to improve postoperative intestinal dysfunction. The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of DKT in improving intestinal dysfunction after abdominal surgery. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library were systematically searched to identify randomized controlled trails (RCTs) in adult patients undergoing abdominal surgery, who were randomly distributed to administrate DKT and placebo. The primary outcomes included the time to first postoperative flatus or bowel movement. We used random-effects models to calculate summary mean differences (MDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Nine RCTs totaling 1,212 patients (618 in DKT, 594 in control group) were included in our study. Compared with control group, DKT can effectively improve postoperative intestinal dysfunction by shortening the time to first postoperative flatus (MD, −0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.66 to −0.16; P = 0.001) with significant heterogeneity (I2 = 71%, P = 0.004), and bowel movement (MD, −0.65; 95% CI, −0.97 to −0.32; P < 0.001) without significant heterogeneity (I2 = 40%, P = 0.14). Sensitivity analyses by indication of surgery and type of surgery yielded similar results. CONCLUSION: These data provide limited evidence that DKT shows efficacy on improving intestinal dysfunction after abdominal surgery. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously, due to the heterogeneity of the studies included. Thus, the efficacy of DKT on improving postoperative intestinal dysfunction warrants further investigation.
Adult ; Flatulence ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Population Characteristics