Background: The discovery of the pluripotent stem cells made the prospect of cell therapy and tissue regeneration a clinical reality, especially with the evidence of contribution of the stem cells of bone marrow origin in hepatic regeneration. Infusion of bone marrow stem cells before trans-arterial chemoembolization may help to increase liver volume and consequently increase hepatic reserve in patients with HCC, and this may improve the outcome of this procedure.
Materials and methods: Four Child B class patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated by transarterial chemoembolization were injected with autologous bone marrow mononuclear layer containing stem cell in the hepatic artery feeding the contralateral lobe of the liver in the same session, follow-up of the patients was done by doing liver profile and CT liver volumetry before the surgery and 3 months later.
Results: We observed that patients receiving stem cell therapy simultaneously with TACE had shown a significant improvement in biological and volumetric parameters of liver function compared to those historically reported of patients receiving TACE only who usually shows deterioration of liver parameters.
Conclusion: BMC infusion into the hepatic artery synchronized with TACE for patients with chronic liver disease complicated with HCC is safe, feasible, and demonstrated an improvement in both biological and radiological volumetric parameters.