连续移植揭示了成年小鼠肝细胞的干细胞样再生潜力。

Overturf K, al-Dhalimy M, Ou C N, Finegold M, Grompe M

Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland 97201, USA.

Am J Pathol. 1997 Nov;151(5):1273-80.

Previous work has shown that adult mouse hepatocytes can divide at least 18 times in vivo. To test whether this represents the upper limit of their regenerative capacity, we performed serial transplantation of hepatocytes in the fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase deficiency murine model of liver repopulation. Hepatocytes from adult donors were serially transplanted in limiting numbers six times and resulted in complete repopulation during each cycle. This corresponds to a minimal number of 69 cell doublings or a 7.3 x 10(20)-fold expansion. No evidence for abnormal liver function or altered hepatic architecture was found in repopulated animals. We conclude that a fraction of adult mouse hepatocytes have growth potential similar to that of hematopoietic stem cells.

先前的研究表明，成年小鼠肝细胞在体内至少能分裂18次。为了测试这是否代表其再生能力的上限，我们在富马酰乙酰乙酸水解酶缺乏的小鼠肝脏再填充模型中进行了肝细胞的连续移植。来自成年供体的肝细胞以有限数量连续移植了六次，并且在每个周期中都实现了完全再填充。这相当于最少69次细胞倍增或7.3×10²⁰倍的扩增。在再填充的动物中未发现肝功能异常或肝脏结构改变的证据。我们得出结论，一部分成年小鼠肝细胞具有与造血干细胞相似的生长潜力。