A Progress of Adult Stem Cells Differentiating into Liver Cells

Adult stem cells (ASCs) are the multi-potential cells, which exist in fetal and adult tissues. They can reproduce themselves (undergo self-renewal) or give rise to more specialized (differentiated) cells. The primary roles of adult stem cells in a living organism are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. Under certain inducing conditions, adult stem cells can acquire the ability to differentiate into different tissue cells, which bring a bright future to the regeneration medicine. This review expatiates the recent progress of the studies on adult stem cells, especially bone marrow (BM)-derived and human umbilical cord blood (HUCB)-derived stem cells, differentiating into liver cells and the possible mechanism of their plasticity.