The liver is an essential metabolic organ. In addition to metabolizing glucose and lipids, hepatocytes also secrete various cytokines that modulate both hepatocyte metabolism and liver inflammation. Hepatocyte injury and death and liver inflammation are the major contributors to liver diseases, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Anatomic locations have a profound effect on hepatocyt...

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) mobilises calcium in the hepatocyte, an effect which is abolished by verapamil and staurosporine. In our study parathyroid hormone was shown to act additively to dHGF in inducing hepatocyte DNA synthesis. It is also shown that PTH induced the production of inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate (IP3) and c-fos expression at early times in culture. Co-incubation of PTH and dHGF w...

Although pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated into the hepatocyte lineages, such cells retain an immature phenotype. As the chromatin state of regulatory regions controls spatiotemporal gene expression during development, we evaluated changes in epigenetic histone marks in lineage-specific genes throughout in vitro hepatocyte differentiation from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Acti...

Hepatocytes are highly susceptible to cytokine stimulation and are fundamental to liver function. We established primary canine hepatocyte cultures to study effects of anti-inflammatory agents with hepatoprotective properties. Hepatocyte cultures were incubated with control media alone, silybin (SB), or the more bioavailable silybin-phosphatidylcholine complex (SPC), followed by activation with...

BACKGROUND As a basis for future clinical questions, we evaluated the efficacy of hepatocyte transplantation in a surgical model using a subperitoneal or intrasplenic approach for cell implantation. METHODS In rats, acute liver failure was induced by subtotal hepatectomy. Series of allogenic hepatocyte transplantations were performed by varying cell number, site, and sequence of cell transpla...

When comparing hepatic phenotypes between iPSC-derived hepatocyte-like cells from different liver disease patients, cell heterogeneity can confound interpretation. We proposed that homogeneous cell populations could be generated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Using cell-surface capture proteomics, we identified a total of 300 glycoproteins on hepatocytes. Analyses of the express...

PURPOSE Retrorsine selectively inhibits hepatocyte proliferation and following liver injury evokes small hepatocyte-like progenitor cells. The aim of this study is to find out whether endogenous extrahepatic cells contribute to small hepatocyte-like progenitor cells after retrorsine treatment. METHODS Wild-type Lewis rat liver exposed to retrorsine was transplanted into GFP transgenic Lewis r...

Interferon-β is a first-line therapy used to prevent relapses in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The clinical benefit of interferon-β in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis is attributed to its immunomodulatory effects on inflammatory mediators and T cell reactivity. Here, we evaluated the production of hepatocyte growth factor, a neuroprotective and neuroinflammation-suppressive med...

Chronic liver injury, as observed in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), progressive fibrosis, and cirrhosis, remains poorly treatable. Steatohepatitis causes hepatocyte loss part by a direct lipotoxic insult, which is amplified derangements the non-parenchymal cellular (NPC) interactive network wherein hepatocytes reside, including, hepatic stellate cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells macrop...

BACKGROUND The strenuous procurement of cultured human hepatocytes and their short lives have constrained the cell culture model of cytochrome P450 (CYP450) induction, xenobiotic biotransformation, and hepatotoxicity. The development of continuous non-tumorous cell line steadily containing hepatocyte phenotypes would substitute the primary hepatocytes for these studies. RESULTS The hepatocyte...