title: Retinoic acid maintains differentiated cell morphology and functions in long-term cultured porcine hepatocytes: obtaining functional cells for prolonged treatments with bioartificial liver.
abstract: Porcine hepatocytes show several immunological characteristics and enzymatic activities of human liver, representing an ideal xenogenic source of cells as biological component of bioartificial liver (BAL). Isolated hepatocytes rapidly lose their specific metabolic activities and their typical morphology when cultured in the presence of serum. Since in BAL porcine hepatocytes are perfused by the patient's plasma, procedures able to minimize de-differentiation of cells could be useful for long-term treatment of acute liver failure (ALF). In this work we found that, in the presence of micromolar concentration of All trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), porcine parenchymal liver cells undergo to a lower extent the de-differentiating effects of long-term culture in the presence of serum. The evaluation of lidocaine metabolism showed that ATRA-treated cells retain specific hepatocyte function for a significantly longer time when compared to control hepatocytes. A tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma1 was observed in concomitance with the ATRA-induced maximal functional activity. An increased expression of PLC-beta3 and PKC-alpha and -beta2 was also evidentiated at the longer time points explored, when the effects of ATRA in preservation of the differentiated morphology were maximal. These results provide the first evidence that ATRA plays a differentiating role in adult porcine hepatocytes cultured under de-differentiating conditions. The administration of ATRA to isolated parenchymal cells from pig liver may provide functional hepatocytes for prolonged treatment with BAL.
authors.affiliation: Signal Transduction Unit/Laboratory of Cell Biology, Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Morphology and Embryology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bertagnolo
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Puviani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brogli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brugnoli
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Colamussi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morsiani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Capitani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects*; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000378:metabolism; D019164:Liver, Artificial; D013552:Swine; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D014801:Vitamin A; D014212:Tretinoin; D008012:Lidocaine