[Roles of E-cadherin in enhancing the in vitro differentiation of hepatocytes from murine embryonic stem cells].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the roles of E-cadherin (E-cad) in enhancing the in vitro differentiation of hepatocytes from murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs).

METHODS

Exogenous E-cad was transfected into BALB/c murine ESCs to enable its stable expression. Then hepatic differentiation from E-cad-ESCs was induced by such growth factors as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and transforming growth factor (TGF). And the expressions of hepatic markers ALB, TAT, Cyp7a1 and urea were detected. The morphology of hepatic differentiation was observed under microscopy.

RESULTS

E-cad expression gradually decreased in normal ESC differentiation, but was stably expressed in E-cad-ESCs. In E-cad-ESC group, hepatic markers ALB, TAT and CYP7a1 were expressed earlier or higher than that in normal ESC group, and the concentrations of ALB and urea were significantly higher than that in normal ESC group. The adhesion of the differentiated E-cad-ESCs was significantly enhanced compared with the normal ESCs. They maintained close connections and multidimensional growth. Cell number of hepatocytes from ESC increased significantly in E-cad-ESC group.

CONCLUSION

E-cad enhances the hepatic differentiation of ESC by increasing the number of differentiated cells and increasing the synthetic capacity of ALB and urea.