Mesenchymal stem cells showed the highest potential for the regeneration of injured liver tissue compared with other subpopulations of the bone marrow

• Published in: Cell biology international Vol. 33; no. 7; pp. 772 - 777
• Main Authors: Cho, Kyung-Ah, Ju, Sun-Young, Cho, Su Jin, Jung, Yun-Jae, Woo, So-Youn, Seoh, Ju-Young, Han, Ho-Seong, Ryu, Kyung-Ha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2009; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Animals; Bone Marrow Cells - cytology; Carbon Tetrachloride - toxicity; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; Coculture Techniques; Female; Green Fluorescent Proteins - genetics; Green Fluorescent Proteins - metabolism; Hepatocytes - cytology; Liver Diseases - therapy; Liver injury; Liver Regeneration - physiology; Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); Mesenchymal Stromal Cells - cytology; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Transgenic; Transplantation; Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); Transplantation; Liver injury
• ISSN: 1065-6995; 1095-8355
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cellbi.2009.04.023

We have previously reported that bone marrow cells (BMCs) participate in the regeneration after liver injury. However, it is not established that this is the result of differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or the combination of both. We investigated the contribution of each cell fraction to the regenerative process. First, we confirmed that transplanted stem cells migrate directly to injured liver tissue without dispersing to other organs. Next, we divided green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing BMCs into three populations as mononuclear cells, MSCs and HSCs. We then compared the engraftment capacity after transplantation of each fraction of cells into liver-injured mice. Of these, the MSCs transplanted group showed the highest GFP fluorescence intensities in liver tissue by flow cytometry analysis and confocal microscopic observation. Furthermore, MSCs showed differentiation potential into hepatocytes when co-cultured with injured liver cells, which suggests that MSCs showed highest potential for the regeneration of injured liver tissue compared with those of the other two cell refractions.