Table 3.

Summary of advantages and disadvantages of available human cells for liver therapy and regeneration.

Cell	Source	Advantages	Disadvantages	Ref.
PHHs	Cadaveric liver Partial hepatectomy	No ethical/political concerns Mature functional cells No risk of teratoma formation Clinically established cells	Immunogenicity Not proliferative in vitro Rapid loss of functionality Not available at large scale Cell aging DNA damage	[23,134]
FLPs	Aborted fetus	Highly proliferative Lower immunogenicity than PHHs Transdifferentiation into mature hepatocytes	Ethical concern Low number of cells per fetal liver leading to multiple donors Difficult supply	[135]
AdLSCs	Adult liver	Proliferative Bi-potent	Immunogenicity Not available at large scale Cell aging DNA damage	[90,91,92]
HSCs	Bone marrow Blood	No ethical concern Highly proliferative Non-invasive collection procedures Abundant supplies (bone marrow) Low viral contamination No risk of teratoma formation Contribution to liver regeneration	Poorly effective: cell fusion with resident hepatocytes/trophic effects Limited number per single cord blood unit (multiple donors) Cell aging DNA damage	[136]
MSCs	Bone marrow Umbilical cord Adipose tissue Blood	Highly proliferative Multipotency Immunomodulatory effects Antifibrotic effects	Downregulation of apoptotic genes Downregulation of DNA repair genes Heteroplasmic point mutations Viral transmission Cell aging DNA damage	[137]
ESCs	Embryos	Self-renewal Pluripotency	Ethical concern Tumorigenicity Safety concerns (genetic stability) Immunogenicity	[126]
iPSCs	Reprogramming of somatic cells	Self-renewal Pluripotency Possibly autologous	Safety concerns Tumorigenicity	[126,138]

PHHs: primary human hepatocytes; FLPs: fetal liver progenitors; AdHLSCs: adult human liver stem cells; HSCs: hematopoietic stem cells; MSCs: mesenchymal stem cells; ESCs: embryonic stem cells; iPSCs: induced pluripotent stem cells.