以間葉系幹細胞之肝臟細胞分化技術測試固有成方保肝中藥之療效驗證

李光申，李德章
國立陽明大學 國立中國醫藥研究所
肝病為我國之國病，其盛行率於我國始終居高不下。肝病造成之死亡率，多年來亦高居十大死因之前幾位。西醫對於肝臟疾病的治療始終束手無策，只能採取支持性的保守療法，對於肝功能有具體促進效用的西藥，更是寥寥可數。
在中草藥相關之古籍記載中，對於保肝則有相當清楚的認識，民間亦有許多口耳相傳，對於肝功能促進及回復具有療效的中草藥。在講求中醫藥科學化的今日，若能夠使用西洋生物醫學的研究方法，建立出一套技術平台，證明中草藥具有保肝藥物的療效，對中草藥在肝疾的應用能有所助益。
本實驗室數年前即已建立自骨髓間葉系幹細胞分化成肝臟細胞之技術平台。本研究之目的，即在更進一步的利用這個平台技術，測試各種具有保肝成分的中草藥，是否確實能促進這些肝臟細胞的功能，如白蛋白的製造、肝醣的儲存、胺基酸的代謝及尿素的產生等，這些細胞培養測試中，也可以定量出細胞毒性及安全濃度作為日後臨床使用中草藥之參考。
綜上所述，本研究計畫使用幹細胞之肝臟細胞分化技術作為中草藥篩選及確認療效的平台，在國內外實屬創新，相信本研究所得到之結果，將有助於中草藥之全球化使用，使得中草藥得以發揚光大於世界，並且造福更多病患。
關鍵字：間葉系幹細胞，肝臟細胞分化，保肝中草藥，療效驗證

Application of hepatic defferentiation of mesenchymal stem cells as a screening platform to validate the therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicine prescription for liver diseases

Oscar K. Lee*; Te-Chang Lee1.
*National Yang-Ming University National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine(1)
High prevalence of liver diseases in Taiwan has resulted in a high death rate in these patients and made liver diseases the top leading causes of death for many years. Western medicine has no cure for these diseases but conservative and supportive treatments. There are also very limited western medications which demonstrate specific effects on improving liver functions. Traditional Chinese medicine has clearly recorded knowledge of liver protection. The public is also aware of traditional Chinese medications which promote and repair liver functions. With pursuit of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, the application of traditional Chinese medicine to liver diseases would be advanced by using western medical research methodology to establish a platform technology which can validate the liver protecting effects of traditional Chinese medicine. Our lab has demonstrated the differentiation potential of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes. The aim of this project is to further apply this platform technology to examine whether various traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions with liver protecting ingredients would enhance liver specific functions of these hepatocytes, including albumin secretion, glycogen storage, metabolism of amino acids, and production of urea.
關鍵字：mesenchymal stem cells；hepatic differentiation；Chinese medicine prescription；liver diseases；therapeutic effects