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Biomedical subjects

X Rogiers

Publications and source records attributed to X Rogiers.

149 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Fetal and adult liver stem cells for liver regeneration and tissue engineering.

For the development of innovative cell-based liver directed therapies, e.g. liver tissue engineering, the use of stem cells might be very attractive to overcome the limitation of donor liver tissue. Liver specific differentiation of embryonic, fetal or adult stem cells is currently under investigation. Different types of fetal liver (stem) cells during development were identified, and their advantageous growth potential and bipotential differentiation capacity were shown. However, ethical and legal issues have to be addressed before using fetal cells. Use of adult stem cells is clinically established, e.g. transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells. Other bone marrow derived liver stem cells might be mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). However, the transdifferentiation potential is still in question due to the observation of cellular fusion in several in vivo experiments. In vitro experiments revealed a crucial role of the environment (e.g. growth factors and extracellular matrix) for specific differentiation of stem cells. Co-cultured liver cells also seemed to be important for hepatic gene expression of MSC. For successful liver cell transplantation, a novel approach of tissue engineering by orthotopic transplantation of gel-immobilized cells could be promising, providing optimal environment for the injected cells. Moreover, an orthotopic tissue engineering approach using bipotential stem cells could lead to a repopulation of the recipients liver with healthy liver and biliary cells, thus providing both hepatic functions and biliary excretion. Future studies have to investigate, which stem cell and environmental conditions would be most suitable for the use of stem cells for liver regeneration or tissue engineering approaches.

Animals↗

Liver transplantation in metabolic disorders.

Liver transplantation in pediatric patients represents about 10% of a total of 23,000 transplantations registered in the European Liver Transplantation Register (ELTR)since 1968. The pediatric patients show a specific spectrum of indications with cholestatic liver disorders ranking first, followed by hepatic based metabolic disorders. There has been a significant improvement of survival in transplantation since the early 80ies. The overall survival standard is nowadays in the range of 80%. There is a trend towards even better results in metabolic disorders. The clinical presentation of liver disease caused by metabolic disorders shows a wide range from acute liver, cerebral, cardiac and renal failure to chronic end stage liver, kidney and heart disease potentially complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma. In many cases, the diagnosis of a underlying metabolic disorder is very difficult and time consuming so the decision to do a liver transplantation may be necessary before a final diagnosis is established. Having these problems in mind, the consideration of absolute and relative contraindications for liver transplantation in metabolic disorders is even more difficult than it is already in cholestatic or inflammatory liver disorders. The individual evaluation of a patient suffering from a hepatic metabolic disorder must consider in addition the often dramatic restriction of quality of life due to rigorous dietary restrictions or other therapies. This makes clear that suitable methods to measure quality of life must be developed and applied in order to fulfill this goal. The extension of indications for liver transplantation even to disorders with only partial defects in otherwise healthy livers was possible by using innovative surgical techniques such as partial, living related, split, in situ split and auxiliary orthotopic transplantation. These techniques allowed to reduce the mortality on pediatric waiting lists significantly without restricting the general donor pool. However, living related liver transplantation is handicaped by the heterozygous status of the parent donor. This plays a role especially in patients with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) and Wilson's disease.

Child↗

Multi-visceral resection for locally advanced gastric cancer.

Fifty-three of sixty-four patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric carcinoma presented with advanced gastric cancer. 8 patients underwent palliative gastrectomy. In 17 patients gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy was performed. In 28 patients with locally advanced gastric carcinoma, extended resection was performed. Patients who underwent splenectomy were only included if tumorous adherence to the spleen was present. Hospital mortality and morbidity were 3.6% and 25% in extended resection and 5.9% and 18% in gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy alone. R0 resection was performed in 26/28 and in 16/17 patients, respectively. In R0 (complete) resections the mean one and two-year-survival rates were 64% and 44% in extended resection, and 67% and 47% in gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy. In patients (11) with residual tumour (R1/R2) mean one and two-year-survival rates were 27% and 0%, respectively. If complete resection (R0) is achieved, extended resection for locally advanced gastric carcinoma provides survival time, which is comparable, stage for stage, with survival rates observed after R0 resection for cancer limited to the stomach.

Aged↗

Preemptive liver transplantation in primary hyperoxaluria type 1: timing and preliminary results.

Preemptive isolated liver transplantation (PLTX) can cure the metabolic defect in primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) but there are no uniformally accepted recommendations concerning the timing of this transplantation procedure. We have performed PLTX successfully in 4 children (age 3-9 years) with PH1 with no mortality or morbidity due to the transplantation procedure. Plasma and urinary oxalate levels normalised rapidly and renal function remained stable including one patient with advanced chronic renal failure who showed a stable course for more than 24 months. Although treatment must be individualised in this severe metabolic disorder and PLTX has to be viewed as invasive procedure, we feel PLTX should be offered and discussed not too late in the treatment of PH1 to prevent or at least delay the progression to end stage renal disease and systemic oxalosis.

Child↗