Medicina Molecular e Genética

Viral Disease, Tissue Injury, Repair and Regeneration

Abstract

Nicholas Ten, Deisy Contreras, Vidhya Kanagavel and Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami

Adult stem cells present in various tissues play key roles in tissue repair and regeneration upon injury. The inflammatory responses associated with tissue damage that are caused by physical, chemical, infectious, nutritional and genetic factors activate stem cells to proliferate and differentiate. The severity and duration of the injury influence the outcome of tissue repair. Viral diseases are major public health problems and over 500 million people worldwide are affected with viral hepatitis. Virus infection of acute or chronic nature could disrupt the tissue homeostasis by altering cell function and architecture. Little is known about the effect of viral diseases on resident stem or progenitor cell population during tissue repair and the regeneration process. This review summarizes the liver-specific inflammatory and healing responses to injury and provides a detailed overview of the cellular and molecular basis of tissue regeneration following viral diseases. Understanding the behavior of resident stem or progenitor cells in response to tissue injury caused by infectious agents such as viruses can allow for the development of small molecule and cell-based therapy for tissue regeneration.