The in vivo evaluation of the therapeutic potential of human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells for acute liver disease.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as an attractive candidate for cell therapy applications. In the prior decade, many animal studies have demonstrated that MSCs are therapeutically beneficial for the treatment of liver disease. The carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced acute hepatitis model has been the most widely used model in these studies. Our group has utilized the CCl4-induced mouse hepatitis model to study the therapeutic potential of human adipose tissue-derived MSCs (hADSCs). We have demonstrated that systemically administered hADSCs engrafted into the damaged liver and promoted tissue repair. This phenomenon likely reflected the paracrine effects of the administered hADSCs. In this chapter, we describe a method to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the systemic administration of hADSCs in the CCl4-induced mouse model of acute hepatitis.