Cellular loss after allogenic hepatocyte transplantation

Hepatocyte transplantation (HCTx) has been considered as an alternative to orthotopic liver transplantation for the treatment of acute and chronic liver failure and metabolic liver diseases. One of the factors that mainly limit its application is the significant cellular loss after HCTx. Although liver has been considered as an immunologically privileged organ, transplanted hepatocytes can only survive for 7 to 10 days without immunosuppression. In fact, both innate and adaptive immune system are implicated in the destruction to allografts, which is a particular type of rejection. This article has reviewed the progress in the mechanisms of cellular loss after allogenic HCTx.