Leberrepopulation nach Transplantation von hepatischen Stammzellen

Introduction: Initial clinical results indicate that liver cell transplantation is a suitable method for the treatment of serious liver disease. Donor organ shortage markedly restricts the availability of adult hepatocytes as the primary source of cells. However, cells with precursor characteristics prove to be a promising alternative for transplantation applications. The aim is to investigate the adoption of pre-cursor characteristics by hepatocytes proliferating in vitro (colony cells) as well as the qualitative comparison with hepatic stem cells generated in vivo (oval cells). Furthermore, the fate of both cell entities is tracked after transplantation into a rat liver regeneration model. Methods: Adult hepatocytes are stimulated into proliferation (forming ‘colonies’) in a culture system based on hepatocyte and non-parenchymal cell conditioned media supplemented with growth hormones as epidermal and fibroblast growth factors. Cell differentiation markers are assessed on the protein (immunohisto-chemistry) as well as the mRNA level (RT-PCR).