In vitro study of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells in liver-like microenvironments.

摘要

Published observations of the in vivo differentiation of bone marrow (BM) derived cells into hepatocytes led us to study the mechanisms that regulate this differentiation in vitro. Phenotypically defined (Lin−) BM populations were cultured in microenvironments that mimic parenchymal and nonparenchymal liver components. A significant difference in the spectrum of cells generated from BM under various conditions was observed. Specifically, enriched BM cells gave rise to endoderm-like cells in co-culture with fibroblasts.; Lin− cells were shown to generate liver-like cells that expressed CK8 and albumin upon exposure to high HGF-concentrations. Also, individual hematopoietic stem cells (HSC − c-kit+ Lin − Sca-1+) were shown to give rise to albumin-secreting cells, in presence of HGF while the addition of hematopoietic cytokines decreased the frequency of hepatic progeny. These results suggest that HGF is an important regulator of HSC, which may act in inducing HSC to give rise to hematopoietic or hepatic progeny.