Bone Marrow as a Potential Source of Hepatic Oval Cells

Abstract

Bone marrow stem cells develop into hematopoietic and mesenchymal lineages but have not been known to participate in production of hepatocytes, biliary cells, or oval cells during liver regeneration. Cross-sex or cross-strain bone marrow and whole liver transplantation were used to trace the origin of the repopulating liver cells. Transplanted rats were treated with 2-acetylaminofluorene, to block hepatocyte proliferation, and then hepatic injury, to induce oval cell proliferation. Markers for Y chromosome, dipeptidyl peptidase IV enzyme, and L21-6 antigen were used to identify liver cells of bone marrow origin. From these cells, a proportion of the regenerated hepatic cells were shown to be donor-derived. Thus, a stem cell associated with the bone marrow has epithelial cell lineage capability.

Characterization of two distinct liver progenitor cell subpopulations of hematopoietic and hepatic origins

“…Consistent with this premise, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been shown to transdifferentiate into cells of the hepatocytic lineage in both rodents and humans [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. However, these findings have been challenged by studies showing that cell fusion rather than transdifferentiation of HSCs is involved in regeneration [24,25] and that bone marrow (BM) does not contribute as source of expanding oval cells [26].…”

Human reserve pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells are present in the connective tissues of skeletal muscle and dermis derived from fetal, adult, and geriatric donors

“…By contrast, other studies have shown that stem cells residing in one tissue can differentiate into cell types of another tissue. For example, reserve stem cells derived from bone marrow can differentiate into neurons and glia (Eglitis and Mezey, 1997;Kopen et al, 1999), restore dystrophin expression in skeletal muscle (Gussoni et al, 1999), serve as a source of hepatic oval cells (Petersen et al, 1999), provide cells for neovascularization (Asahara et al, 1999;Kalka et al, 2000), and restore cartilage, bone, and fat (Pittenger et al, 1999;Prokop, 1997;Yoo et al, 1998). Conversely, stem cells derived from neural tissues (Bjornson et al, 1999) and muscle tissues (Jackson et al, 1999) can differentiate into blood.…”

Leukemia-associated genetic aberrations in mesenchymal stem cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

“…not express the hematopoietic markers CD45, CD34, whereas they express variable levels of CD105 (endoglin), CD73 (ecto-5´-nucleotidase), CD44, CD90, CD29 (β1 integrin) and STRO-1 (stromal antigen 1). As depicted in Figure 7, MSC have the ability to differentiate into cells of the mesodernal lineage, like bone, fat and cartilage cells but they also have endodermic (64) and neurodermic differentiation potential (65,62). The plasticity of MSC to differentiate into cells of the hematopoietic lineage has been demonstrated in mice (66).…”