BACKGROUND In humans, fetal microchimeric cells transferred to maternal tissues during pregnancy can adopt a hepatocyte phenotype. Our objective was to determine whether fetal cells participate in the response to specific murine post-partum hepatic injuries. METHODS Wild-type female mice were bred to males transgenic for the enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) (n = 42). Following deliver...

The factors determining the predominantly erythroid direction of human fetal liver hematopoiesis are unknown. We compared the capacities of human fetal liver and bone marrow stromas to sustain fetal and adult hematopoiesis in long-term cultures. In various marrow-fetal liver combinations of stroma and recharge. the maintenance of erythroid (BFU-e) and myeloid (CFU-GM) precursors in the nonadher...

The factors determining the predominantly erythroid direction of human fetal liver hematopoiesis are unknown. We compared the capacities of human fetal liver and bone marrow stromas to sustain fetal and adult hematopoiesis in long-term cultures. In various marrow-fetal liver combinations of stroma and recharge. the maintenance of erythroid (BFU-e) and myeloid (CFU-GM) precursors in the nonadher...

Disruption of the polyubiquitin gene Ubc leads to a defect in fetal liver development, which can be partially rescued by increasing the amount of ubiquitin. However, it is still not known why Ubc is required for fetal liver development and the nature of the defective cell types responsible for embryonic lethality have not been characterized. In this study, we assessed the cause of embryonic let...

During early fetal development, T cell precursors home from fetal yolk sac and liver to the epithelial thymic rudiment. From cells that initially colonize the thymus arise mature T cells that populate T cell zones of the peripheral lymphoid system. Whereas colonization of the thymus occurs late in the final third of gestation in the mouse, in birds and humans the thymus is colonized by hematopo...

Recently we reported that the human thymus contains a minute population of CD34+CD38dim cells that do not express the T-cell lineage markers CD2 and CD5. The phenotype of this population resembled that of CD34+CD38dim cells present in fetal liver, umbilical cord blood, and bone marrow known to be highly enriched for pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells. In this report we tested the hypothesis t...

Although adult mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been purified to near homogeneity, it remains impossible to achieve this with fetal HSCs. Adult HSC purity recently has been enhanced using the SLAM family receptors CD150, CD244, and CD48. These markers are expressed at different stages of the hematopoiesis hierarchy, making it possible to highly purify adult HSCs as CD150 CD48 CD244 ce...

Although adult mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been purified to near homogeneity, it remains impossible to achieve this with fetal HSCs. Adult HSC purity recently has been enhanced using the SLAM family receptors CD150, CD244, and CD48. These markers are expressed at different stages of the hematopoiesis hierarchy, making it possible to highly purify adult HSCs as CD150(+)CD48(-)CD24...

background: during the resent years there has been interest in using bone marrow stem cells to treat liver cirrhosis. however, there is a potential concern for malignant transformation after stem cell therapy. the aim of this study was to evaluate the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) after autologous bone marrow stem cell transplantation for liver cirrhosis. methods: all the patien...

Quantitative stereological methods have been adapted for the measurement of the volume of liver attributable to parenchymal, hematopoietic, and Kupffer cells and for the measurement of the relative and absolute number (per unit volume) of these cell types and the mean volume of the parenchymal cell. These morphological parameters are the main ones for interpreting the biochemical differentiatio...