Transplantation of green fluorescent hepatic stellate cells into rat livers.

THE CURRENT METHOD to treat end-stage hepatic disease is whole-liver transplantation. However, this method is limited mainly by a shortage of organ donors. Therefore, developing effective therapies for hepatic cell transplantation represents a major aim of medical research to relieve the suffering of many patients. Most experimental studies on liver cell transplantation are carried out with adult hepatocytes, which have proved to be promising in the ability to repopulate the liver and ameliorate hepatic function. In the last years, many experiments have also been performed with fetal hepatocytes, with encouraging results. In this work we transplanted liver stellate cells, the major producers of extracellular matrix components, to study whether it is possible for them to reach and integrate into the liver of rats. These cells were stably transfected to overexpress green fluorescent protein (GFP) to follow their fate in the liver.