{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T05:58:56Z","timestamp":1776405536159,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776384000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2022YFC2304402"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFC2304402"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a highly lethal clinical syndrome with limited effective therapeutic options. Urine-derived stem cells (USCs) represent a non-invasive and readily accessible cell source, but whether USCs obtained from patients with severe liver dysfunction retain therapeutic and immunomodulatory potential remains unclear.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To address this question, USCs derived from ACLF patients (LF-USCs) were evaluated in a Concanavalin A (Con A)-induced immune-mediated acute liver injury mouse model. Hydrogel-encapsulated LF-USCs were transplanted, and therapeutic efficacy was assessed by survival analysis, serum biochemical parameters, histological examination, and inflammatory cytokine profiling.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Transplantation of hydrogel-encapsulated LF-USCs significantly improved mouse survival, reduced serum transaminase levels, and alleviated hepatocellular necrosis (p &amp;lt; 0.05). At the mechanistic level, LF-USC treatment was associated with decreased systemic inflammatory cytokine levels, attenuation of intrahepatic inflammatory injury, and dynamic modulation of macrophage-associated inflammatory signatures.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings demonstrate that functionally competent USCs can be successfully obtained from ACLF patients and highlight their potential as a readily accessible autologous cell source for immune modulation and liver tissue repair in immune-mediated acute liver injury.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fbioe.2026.1759241","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T05:22:45Z","timestamp":1776403365000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Functional characterization of urine-derived stem cells from acute-on-chronic liver failure patients in an immune-mediated acute liver injury model"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Jiateng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Fourth Department of Liver Disease (Difficult and Complicated Liver Diseases and Artificial Liver Center), Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University","place":["Beijing, China"]},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Liver Regeneration and Artificial Liver Transformation Research","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pengfei","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fourth Department of Liver Disease (Difficult and Complicated Liver Diseases and Artificial Liver Center), Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University","place":["Beijing, China"]},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Liver Regeneration and Artificial Liver Transformation 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