Review Volume 10, Issue 8 pp 1801—1824

Figure 2. Extracellular factors affecting compensatory regeneration in aged livers. During ageing, activated HSC-induced chemokine production leads to a decreased activation and proliferation of Liver Progenitor Cells (LPCs). Since these cells are required to repopulate the liver following tissue injury, their decrease results in a reduced liver regenerative response. Furthermore, age-dependent HSC size increase and migration, can negatively affect hepatocyte proliferation by reducing liver perfusion. A further reason for the impaired liver regeneration of aged hepatocytes is due to the pro-inflammatory proteins chronically released by senescent hepatocytes that accumulate in the elderly as a consequence of a reduction of autophagy program.