[Stimulation of asialoglycoprotein receptor activity after transcatheter arterial embolotherapy in clinical study and continuous infusion of human hepatocyte growth factor in rat].

The concentration of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was increased immediately after transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We measured the changes in serum HGF levels and those of the asialoglyco-protein receptors (ASGP) in hepatocytes using 99mTc-galactosyl human serum albumin (GSA) on 22 patients with HCC after TAE. HGF and Rmax were increased 33% +/- 32, 40% +/- 28, respectively. Effects of HGF administration were examined in normal rats. Liver weight, hepatocyte nuclear size, and number of hepatocytes (cells/mm2) were not altered by HGF, but GSA blood clearance per hepatocyte was significantly increased over the preinfusion rate. We conclude that increased HGF stimulates a hepatocytic function of the receptor-mediated uptake of ASGP.