In vitro tissue expansion perspectives

Besides orthotopic liver transplantation, therapies currently developed to treat liver diseases include trans- plantation of isolated mature adult hepatocytes by their infusion into blood stream, implantation of liver tissue substitutes and perfusion of blood through an extracor- poreal bioartificial device containing liver cells. With respect to liver cell transplantation (LCT), the success of the procedure closely depends on the viabili- ty and the stability of liver-specific functions of the infused liver cells. The number of needed hepatocytes is also another limiting factor because of donor organ shortage.