Experimental study of fetal liver transplantation.

Fetal liver cells function as liver and bone marrow cells. The direct and indirect effects of fetal liver cell transplants on liver and/or bone marrow failure was investigated in rat experiments. Outbred Wistar, inbred Lewis and F344 fetus rats (18-20 days) were used as donors; Wistar and Lewis rats (210-280g) were used as recipients. D-galactosamine (1.0-1.85g/kg) was administered intraperitoneally inducing acute liver failure. TBI, Co60 1000 Rads, was given inducing bone marrow failure. Donor liver cells were prepared using the following four methods: 1) simple liver homogenation; 2) centrifugation by percol gradient into different fractions; 3) arginine deficient culture; and 4) pronase culture. Preliminary observations of the transplant effect of fetal liver cells on liver and/or bone marrow failure is described.