title: [Induction of cellular process elongation in hepatic stellate cells cultured on interstitial collagen gel: intracellular signaling mechanism].
abstract: Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), located in the perisinusoidal space of Disse, extend long cellular processes, which surround the hepatic sinusoids. However, after primary culture and following subculture using ordinary polystyrene culture dishes, HSCs lost their cellular processes and exhibited myofibroblast-like phenotypes. HSCs displayed rounded shapes when cultured on Matrigel containing the basement membrane components. On the other hand, HSCs exhibited the elongated cellular processes when cultured on interstitial collagen gel. This process elongation was induced by integrin-binding and the subsequent intracellular signaling pathways including protein kinases, protein phosphatases, PI 3-kinases, small G proteins, and microtubule-associated protein (MAP) subtype, MAP2C, and finally resulted from the reorganization of microtubules. The cellular processes contained vitamin A and matrix metalloproteinase-1. Such an HSC culture system using extracellular matrix components would be useful to study HSC functions in vivo, such as retinoid metabolism and reorganization of extracellular matrix.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, Akita 018-8543, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Senoo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003094:Collagen; D005782:Gels; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015290:Second Messenger Systems / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D003094:Collagen