Functional analysis of liver stem/progenitor cell in liver regeneration and carcinogenesis

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670187
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental pathology
• Research Institution: Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan (2014); The University of Tokyo (2013)
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Minoru 独立行政法人国立国際医療研究センター, その他部局等, 室長 (80321909)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 幹細胞 / 再生 / 肝細胞 / 胆管上皮細胞 / 前駆細胞 / 肝障害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Hepatic oval cell is observed in chronic liver injury models of rodents and considered as liver stem/progenitor cell, which is capable of differentiating into biliary epithelial cells and hepatocytes. However, the contribution of hepatic oval cell to liver regeneration remains unclear. Because we have previously reported that Trop2 is a specific marker gene for mouse hepatic oval cells, we generated a genetically engineered mouse in which the Cre-recombinase was knocked in to the Trop2 locus for lineage-tracing analysis. As a result, most of hepatic oval cells formed pseudo-biliary ducts and rarely produced hepatocytes in the DDC-injured liver, indicating that hepatic oval cells don’t mainly contribute to the supply of hepatocytes at least in this liver injury model.

Free Research Field

幹細胞生物学