Primary rat hepatocytes are a widely used experimental model to estimate drug metabolism and toxicity. In currently used two-dimensional (2D) cell culture systems, typical problems like morphological changes and the loss of liver cell-specific functions occur. We hypothesize that the use of polymer scaffolds could overcome these problems and support the establishment of three-dimensional (3D) c...

The metabolic activation of the carcinogens N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP) and N-nitroso(2-hydroxypropyl)(2-oxopropyl)amine (HPOP) by Fischer rat and Syrian hamster hepatocytes was investigated in order to determine the existence of species differences in the induction of cell mutation. The conversion of BOP and HPOP into forms mutagenic to V79 cells was studied by using the hepatocyte-me...

The rat is an excellent model for gene therapy because there are many rat models for human diseases. We have developed a simple and efficient method to deliver genes to the rat liver using recombinant retroviral vectors. A 70% partial hepatectomy followed by retroviral infusion into the portal vein results in 10-15% hepatocyte transduction in vivo. This is 10 times more efficient than in the mo...

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plays an important role in hepatocyte proliferation. HGF expression is regulated by various signaling molecules and nuclear receptors. In the present study, LiverCare(®) (LC), a novel polyherbal formulation (The Himalaya Drug Company, Bangalore, India), was evaluated for its efficacy, using co-cultures of primary rat hepatocytes-non-parenchymal cells (NPCs) and hu...

Apoptosis of freshly isolated rat hepatocytes was induced by either the omission of fetal bovine serum in the culture medium or addition of the protein kinase C inhibitors polymyxin B or staurosporine. The time-course of DNA breakdown into oligonucleosome-sized fragments and the activity of protein kinase C was determined. Hepatocytes were found to be sensitive to bleomycin which induced a high...

The rapid regenerative response of the rat liver to partial hepatectomy is associated with a decline in liver epidermal growth factor receptor numbers which implies that ligand epidermal growth factor receptor interactions maybe important in initiating and/or modulating this process. The proliferative process in toxic hepatitis (where in contrast with partial hepatectomy the majority of hepatoc...

Mitochondrial cholesterol 27-hydroxylase (CYP27A1) plays an important role in the maintenance of intracellular cholesterol homeostasis. Cholesterol delivery to the mitochondrial inner membrane is believed to be a rate-limiting step for the "acidic" pathway of bile acid synthesis. This work reports that proteinase K treatment of mitochondria markedly increases CYP27A1 specific activity. With end...

AIM:To explore a simplified method for isolation of hepatocytes and establish a method of primary hepatocyte culture with more aggregates and longer persisence.METHODS: Wistar rat hepatocytes were isolated by a single extracorporeal two-step perfusion method, and the cells were seeded on poly-HEMA coated flasks and cultured with hormonally defined medium and gentle shaking at regular intervals....

The present work was undertaken to study the mechanism by which okadaic acid (OA), an inhibitor of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A, stimulates carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT-I) in isolated rat hepatocytes [Guzmán, Kolodziej, Caldwell, Costorphine and Zammit (1994) Biochem. J. 300, 693-699]. The OA-induced stimulation of CPT-I was abolished by the general protein kinase inhibitor K-252a as ...

BACKGROUND Hepatocyte transplantation is being used in patients with liver-based metabolic disorders and acute liver failure. Hepatocytes can be isolated from unused/rejected livers under sterile conditions. OBJECTIVES The quality of the hepatocytes is very important and the main and initial step in hepatocyte transplantation is hepatocyte isolation. In this study we tried to set up the metho...