Maintenance of hepatocyte functions by coculture with bone marrow stromal cells.
Rat hepatocytes and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were cocultured with the aim of maintaining differentiated hepatocyte functions. After BMSCs were expanded to a confluent monolayer, freshly isolated hepatocytes were cultured with them, separated by a semipermeable membrane. The BMSCs significantly increased the urea synthesis and albumin secretion activities of the hepatocytes. Conditioned medium prepared from a BMSC monoculture had the same effect. Further study showed that interleukin-6 was involved in the maintenance of urea synthesis and another factor in the maintenance of albumin secretion.
Isoda
Katsuhiro
K
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Kojima
Midori
M
Takeda
Masashi
M
Higashiyama
Shinji
S
Kawase
Masaya
M
Yagi
Kiyohito
K