Abstract: Objective To observe the clinic effect of bone marrow stem cell transplantation by hepatic artery on patients with decompensated cirrhosis so as to find a new approach and a new methods to the treatment of severe liver disease. Methods Totally 87 patients with decompensated cirrhosis from our hospital，aged 27 to 65 year old（the average age was 46.7±8.3 year old） were enrolled. Among them，sixty-seven were hepatitis B cirrhosis，two were hepatitis C cirrhosis，eight were primary biliary cirrhosis，nine were alcoholic cirrhosis，and one was cirrhosis of unknown cause.Under sterile condition，200ml of bone marrow was harvested from eighty-seven patients with decompensated cirrhosis，and then BMSCs were isolated and purified. Under local anesthesia，isolated BMSCs were injected into the livers of the patients via hepatic artery.The clinical efficacy，improvement of symptoms and adverse events were observed.　Results Four weeks after transplantation，the levels of serum albumin increased from 31.5±5.1g /L to 33.9 ± 6.0g/L（P<0.01）；the levels of prothrombin time decreased from 17.4±5.6s to 15.8±4.7s（P<0.01）；there were no differences about the levels of aspartate aminotransferase，total bilirubin and alpha-fetoprotein（P>0.05）；pleural effusion disappeared in 10 cases，ascites disappeared in 23 cases，abdominal distension alleviated in 17 cases，and lower extremity edema subsided in 21 cases. No serious complications occurred in this series. Conclusion The bone marrow stem cell transplantation by hepatic artery in treatment of patients with decompensated cirrhosis has a good short-term effects without side effects. It should be worthy of further investigation.

Key words: Cirrhosis, Stem cell, Transplantation, Hepatic artery