title: Lineage tracing reveals conversion of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells into hepatocytes.
abstract: Although liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) have long been known to contribute to liver regeneration following injury, the exact role of these cells in liver regeneration remains poorly understood. In this work, we performed lineage tracing of LSECs in mice carrying Tie2-Cre or VE-cadherin-Cre constructs to facilitate fate-mapping of LSECs in liver regeneration. Some YFP-positive LSECs were observed to convert into hepatocytes following a two-thirds partial hepatectomy (PH). Furthermore, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) could be triggered to convert into cells that closely resembled hepatocytes when cultured with serum from mice that underwent an extended PH. These findings suggest that mature non-hepatocyte LSECs play an essential role in mammalian liver regeneration by converting to hepatocytes. The conversion of LSECs to hepatocyte-like (iHep) cells may provide a new approach to tissue engineering.
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China.|Affiliated Hospital Cancer Center, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors: Zhaoli
authors: Z
authors: Tan
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China.
authors: Keyan
authors: K
authors: Chen
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China.
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Shao
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China.
authors: Lihua
authors: L
authors: Gao
authors: Affiliated Hospital Cancer Center, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Affiliated Hospital Cancer Center, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors: Jianming
authors: J
authors: Xu
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China.|Affiliated Hospital Cancer Center, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Jin
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China. huxw1969@163.com.
authors: Xianwen
authors: X
authors: Hu
authors: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongdajie, Beijing, China. wang_you_liang@aliyun.com.
authors: Youliang
authors: Y
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002196:Capillaries / Q000166:cytology*; D019070:Cell Lineage; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods; D054338:Cell Transdifferentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000098:blood supply / Q000166:cytology; D008115:Liver Regeneration; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic
keywords: hepatocytes; human umbilical vein endothelial cells; liver regeneration; liver sinusoidal endothelial cells; partial hepatectomy