title: [Pleiotrophin stimulates growth and albumin secretion of rat hepatocytes in culture].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the influence of pleiotrophin (PTN) on the growth of rat hepatocytes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary rat hepatocytes were isolated from male Sprague-Dawley rats and divided into three groups: group A (negative control), cultivated in normal culture medium; group B (positive control), cultivated with culture medium supplemented with supernatant from the embryonic fibroblast 3T3 cell line; group C (experimental), cultivated with culture medium supplemented with human recombinant (hr) PTN (100 ng/ml). The hepatocytes' growth rate and level of secreted albumin (ALB) were evaluated by microscopy and biochemical assay, respectively. Significance of between-group differences were assessed by one-way ANOVA, and pairwise comparisons were performed by the least significant difference test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The growth rates of hepatocytes in groups A, B and C were 2.800+/-0.084%, 4.300+/-0.132% and 3.800+/-0.053%, respectively. The growth rate of group B was significantly higher than the other two groups (F = 333.735, P less than 0.05). For all groups, the highest levels of secreted ALB were detected between the second and sixth day of culture, with g/L concentrations at day 2, 4 and 6 of: group A, 0.550+/-0.010, 0.900+/-0.030 and 0.300+/-0.040; group B, 0.900+/-0.030, 1.300+/-0.020 and 1.400+/-0.030; group C, 0.900+/-0.010, 1.160+/-0.010 and 0.700+/-0.050. The secreted ALB of group B was significantly higher than that of the other two groups (F = 651.355, 338.831 and 863.205, P less than 0.05 ).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PTN can benefit in vitro culturing of rat hepatocytes by stimulating growth and enhancing their ability to secrete albumin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Hainan General Hospital, Haikou 570311, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Yuan-sen
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Du-yun
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Fu-rong
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016207:Cytokines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D016207:Cytokines; C066845:pleiotrophin