Safety and efficacy of bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation in the treatment of decompensated liver cirrhosis

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNCs) in the treatment of patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Methods: We randomly assigned 34 patients to control (18 cases) and BM-MNCs (16 cases) groups. All patients in the BM-MNCs group received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for 3 days and were then infused with BM-MNCs. We then tested liver function, blood coagulation parameters, Karnofsky performance status (KPS), and the levels of procollagen IIIN peptide and hyaluronic acid. Results: Generally, the symptoms of patients in the BM-MNCs group improved significantly compared to controls. Six months after transplantation, total bilirubin level was 14.94±7.20?mol/L vs 24.50±15.34?mol/L (p=0.045), albumin level was 40.65±4.94g/L vs 34.78±4.92g/L (p=0.000), and prothrombin time was 10.86±1.18s vs 13.49±1.80s (p=0.002), respectively. KPS significantly improved when measured one month and six months after BM-MNCs therapy and showed obvious differences compared to controls. Changes in Child-Pugh score were also statistically significant when measured six months after therapy (p=0.001). Mean pretreatment serum baseline levels of procollagen IIIN peptide and hyaluronic acid were significantly lower than those measured one month after therapy (both p<0.05). Conclusions: Autologous transplantation of BM-MNCs is safe and effective for patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis and leads to improvements in liver function, hepatic Child-Pugh score and KPS.