K. Overturf et al., SERIAL TRANSPLANTATION REVEALS THE STEM-CELL-LIKE REGENERATIVE POTENTIAL OF ADULT-MOUSE HEPATOCYTES, The American journal of pathology, 151(5), 1997, pp. 1273-1280
Previous work has shown that adult mouse hepatocytes can divide at lea
st 18 times in vivo. To test whether this represents the upper limit o
f their regenerative capacity, we performed serial transplantation of
hepatocytes in the fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase deficiency murine mod
el of liver repopulation. Hepatocytes from adult donors were serially
transplanted in Limiting numbers six times and resulted in complete re
population during each cycle. This corresponds to a minimal number of
69 cell doublings or a 7.3 x 10(20)-fold expansion. No evidence for ab
normal liver function or altered hepatic architecture was found in rep
opulated animals. We conclude that a fraction of adult mouse hepatocyt
es have growth potential similar to that of hematopoietic stem cells.