Toxic, viral and surgical injuries can pose medical indications for liver transplantation. The number of patients waiting for a liver transplant still increases, but the number of organ donors is insufficient. Hepatocyte transplantation was suggested as a promising alternative to liver transplantation, however, this method has some significant limitations. Currently, afterbirth tissues seem to be an interesting source of cells for the regenerative medicine, because of their unique biological and immunological properties. It has been proven in experimental animal models, that the native stem cells, and to a greater extent, hepatocyte-like cells derived from them and transplanted, can accelerate regenerative processes and restore organ functioning. The effective protocol for obtaining functional mature hepatocytes in vitro is still not defined, but some studies resulted in obtaining functionally active hepatocyte-like cells. In this review, we focused on human stem cells isolated from placenta and umbilical cord, as potent precursors of hepatocyte-like cells for regenerative medicine. We summarized the results of preclinical and clinical studies dealing with the introduction of epithelial and mesenchymal stem cells of the afterbirth origin to the liver failure therapy. It was concluded that the use of native afterbirth epithelial and mesenchymal cells in the treatment of liver failure could support liver function and regeneration. This effect would be enhanced by the use of hepatocyte-like cells obtained from placental and/or umbilical stem cells.

毒性、病毒性和手术损伤可能构成肝移植的医学适应症。等待肝移植的患者数量仍在增加，但器官捐献者数量不足。肝细胞移植被认为是肝移植的一种有前途的替代方案，但是，这种方法有一些明显的局限性。目前，胎衣组织似乎是再生医学的一个有趣的细胞来源，因为它们具有独特的生物学和免疫学特性。实验动物模型已经证明，天然干细胞，在更大程度上，来源于它们并移植的肝细胞样细胞，可以加速再生过程并恢复器官功能。体外获得功能成熟肝细胞的有效方案仍然没有定义，但一些研究导致获得功能活跃的肝细胞样细胞。在这篇综述中，我们专注于从胎盘和脐带中分离出的人类干细胞，它们是用于再生医学的肝细胞样细胞的有效前体。我们总结了将胎衣来源的上皮和间充质干细胞引入肝衰竭治疗的临床前和临床研究结果。得出的结论是，使用天然胎衣上皮和间充质细胞治疗肝衰竭可以支持肝功能和再生。通过使用从胎盘和/或脐带干细胞获得的肝细胞样细胞可以增强这种效果。