Liver fibrosis improvement and regeneration induction therapy for cirrhosis

The liver is originally an organ with a high reserve capacity and a high regenerative ability. However, long-term chronic damage to the liver leads to cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is a disease characterized by decreased liver function and portal hypertension caused by increased fibrosis, which leads to various symptoms such as jaundice, hemorrhage, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, and infection in the decompensated stage, resulting in death. Hepatocellular carcinoma often appears during the course of the disease, so it is important to treat the disease while maintaining liver function.
Fibrosis in cirrhosis was thought to be irreversible, but now much knowledge has been accumulated that it can be ameliorated. While there are various approaches to improving fibrosis, we have focused our research on macrophage function. Macrophages are very interesting cells because they have a dual function: some macrophages act proinflammatory in the injury, while others act to improve fibrosis when the inflammation settles down. In this talk, I would like to introduce our research on mesenchymal stem cells and their extracellular vesicles in relation to macrophages and our studies using HMGB1 partial peptide. We are currently conducting clinical trials of mesenchymal stem cells and HMGB1 partial peptide and will discuss the results of HMGB1 studies.