The field of stem cell biology has exploded with the study of a wide range of cellular populations involving endodermal, mesenchymal, and ectodermal organs. One area of extensive study has included the identification of hepatic stem and progenitor cell subpopulations. Liver stem cells provide insights into the potential pathways involving liver regeneration that are independent of mature hepatocytes. Hepatic progenitor cells are either bipotent or multipotent and capable of multiple rounds of replication.They have been identified in fetal as well as adult liver. Various injury models have been used to expand this cellular compartment. The nomenclature, origin, and function of the hepatic progenitor cell populations are areas of ongoing debate. In this review, we will discuss the different definitions and functions of hepatic progenitor cells as well as the current research efforts examining their therapeutic potential.

Background/Aim: Recent interest in the liver stem cell field has led to the identification and characterization of several hepatic progenitor cell populations from fetal and adult tissues. We isolated a hepatic progenitor cell from naïve adult liver and the current studies focus on differentiation and growth.

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Conclusion:In this series, TSR was accurately predictive of a durable success after EVAR. It occurred mostly in patients with a favorable anatomy. Less intensive follow-up work-up seems to be safe in patients with TSR.

Carotid body tumors (CBTs) are neuroendocrine tumors that arise due to mutations of respiratory cycle enzymes. Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is a disease that causes narrowing of medium-sized arteries. There is no documented link between CBT and FMD. In this article, we report a case of a patient with bilateral carotid FMD and familial CBT, including one in an identical twin who underwent successful surgical excision of the CBT. We describe specific considerations in the management of CBT in patients with concomitant carotid FMD. Also, we review the literature about the genetics of familial CBT and its possible relationship to the etiology of FMD.

was Ͻ50 mL. Patients were fed a clear liquid diet immediately postoperatively and were advanced to a regular diet on postoperative day 1. Patients were discharged on the second or third postoperative day. At an average of 3 months postoperatively (6, 3, and 1 months), all patients continued with resolution of preoperative symptoms.Conclusions: Robotic-assisted MAL release and celiac ganglionectomy is safe and achieves good immediate postoperative results. The increased dexterity provided by the da Vinci Robot appears to allow for safer and complete release of this area. Objective(s):The adoption of endovascular (EV) interventions has been reported to lower amputation rates, but patients who undergo EV and open revascularization are not directly comparable. We have adopted EVfirst approach but individualize the revascularization technique according to patient characteristics. The goal of our study was to compare characteristics of patients who had EV or open procedures and assess the long termoutcomes.Methods: From December 2002 to September 2010, 428 patients underwent infrainguinal revascularization for critical limb ischemia (CLI; Rutherford IV-VI) of 513 limbs; of whom 364 were EV and 149 were open procedures. Primary patency (PP), secondary patency (SP), limb salvage (LS), and survival were calculated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Predictors of patency, limb salvage, and death were determined using multivariate analysis.Results: The EV group was older, had poorer functional capacity (Ͻ4 metabolic equivalents), more diabetes mellitus, renal insufficiency, tissue loss, and required infrapopliteal interventions (Table). The open group had more multilevel reconstructions (71% vs 38%, P Ͻ .001). The 30-day mortality was 2.8% in EV and 6.1% in open (P ϭ .077). Mean follow-up was 27 Ϯ 23 months (range, 0-96). In the EV group, 7% needed open and 6% needed EV reinterventions in nontreated vessels, compared with 6% and 3% the open group. Five-year LS was 78% Ϯ 3% in EV group and 76% Ϯ 5% in open group (P ϭ .971), and survival was 35% Ϯ 4% vs 44 Ϯ 5%, (P ϭ .23). The 5-year PP and SP were 52% Ϯ 6% and 72% Ϯ 6% in the EV group and 44% Ϯ 6% and 61% Ϯ 7% in the open group, respectively (P ϭ .644 for PP, P ϭ .011 for SP). Multivariate analysis identified poor functional capacity (hazard ratio, 2.9 [95% confidence interval, 1.6-5.6] P ϭ .001), dialysisdependence (2.3 [1.3-3.9], P ϭ .004), gangrene (2.1 [1.4-3.4], P ϭ .001), infrapopliteal intervention (1.9 [1.2-3.1], P ϭ .01), and diabetes mellitus (1.8 [1.0-3.1], P ϭ .043) as predictors of limb loss, but only poor functional capacity (3.0 [2.0-4.1], P Ͻ .001), and gangrene (1.4 [1.1-1.8], P ϭ .008) predicted poorer survival, and only infrapopliteal interventions predicted poorer PP (1.5 [1.1-2.2], P ϭ .02).Conclusions: Although patients who underwent EV revascularization for CLI consisted of medically higher-risk patients, the 30-day mortality rate was acceptable, LS at 5 years was similar with open repair, but overall survival remains poor.

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