Abstract
Liver transplantation is the only established method for the treatment of irreversible hepatic impairment. However, a shortage of liver grafts is a major problem, so increased attention has been paid to hepatocyte transplantation as one measure for solving this problem. Hepatocyte transplantation is performed to support liver function in patients with hepatic impairment and it is now being considered for gene therapy because hepatocytes can maintain many genes at high levels. In particular, for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction arising from deficiency of proteins spe-cifically produced in the liver, total liver replacement is not considered necessary and gene therapy by hepatocyte transplantation is expected to be effective. This mechanism of grafting by hepatocytes is not yet well understood. However, it will come to be better known by utilizing recent advances in various scientific fields such as cell technology, and a reliable method of hepatocyte transplanta-tion will become established in the near future.
