Increase in albumin mRNA by repeated intrahepatic transplantation of F344 rat hepatocytes into the liver of congenic analbuminemic rats.

Hepatocytes of F344 rat were transplanted into the liver of congenic analbuminemic rats by infusion into the mesenteric vein from once to four times at one-week intervals. The transplantability was confirmed by the increase in the number of albumin-positive cells and appearance of normal albumin mRNA within the recipient liver, and the elevated serum albumin level. When the normal albumin mRNA was quantitated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using the abnormally spliced albumin mRNA of analbuminemic rats as an internal standard, the increase in normal mRNA was in good agreement with the serum albumin level and the number of albumin positive hepatocytes within the liver. These three markers proportionally increased with the number of infusion times. Our results demonstrate that the number of intrahepatically transplanted hepatocytes is able to be increased by repeated infusion.