title: Colonial growth and differentiation of epithelial cells derived from abattoir adult porcine livers.
abstract: The parenchymal cell fraction was isolated from abattoir adult porcine livers and cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagles' medium/Ham's F12 medium (DMEM/F12; 1:1) medium supplemented with 5% foetal calf serum, 10 ng/mL glucagon, 10 microg/mL insulin, 60 ng/mL hydrocortisone and eight other factors (NAIR-1 medium). The fraction contained a number of epithelial cells other than hepatocytes, some of which attached to the culture plates as cell clusters and began to grow after 3 days in culture. These epithelial cells growing as colonies were found to express cytokeratin 18 by immunocytochemistry. After 7-8 days, duct-like structures emerged in the central parts of the colonies. The cells constituting the duct-like structures and some cells located outside the structures were positive for cytokeratin 19 and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT). The albumin-positive cells were located in the outer parts of the colonies rather than their central parts. Albumin was also detectable in the cells surrounded by the duct-like structures. Moreover, cytochrome P450 IA1 was induced by 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC) on day 16. These results suggest that porcine liver epithelial cell clusters may contain stem-like cells which can differentiate into mature hepatocytes or bile duct epithelial cells.
authors.affiliation: Bionic Design Group, National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. jkano@ccmail.nibh.go.jp
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kano
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tokiwa
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kodama
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D019363:Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1 / Q000032:analysis; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology*; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D019363:Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1