Stem cells in gastroenterology: prospects and problems

Abstract

The aim of review. To generalize cumulative data on the role of stem cells (SC) in treatment of gastroenterological diseases.Original positions. Cell-based treatment is rather new and, probably, promising trend in treatment of many severe diseases in which traditional methods fail to achieve due results. In therapeutic aspect of gastrointestinal and liver diseases inflammatory bowel diseases, colorectal cancer and decompensated liver cirrhosis seem to be most perspective at the present stage. At the same time clinical application of SC is associated to array of serious problems: immune rejection and «graft-versus-host» response, neoplastic transformation as well as ethical and religious restrictions. Conclusion. Application SC in clinical gastroenterology is premature today. Their efficacy and safety requires confirmation in multicenter randomized trials.

Keywords

• stem cells
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• colorectal cancer
• liver cirrhosis
• treatment