Hepatocytes isolated from neoplastic liver-immunomagnetic purging as a new source for transplantation

Abstract

AIM:To investigate whether hepatocytes isolated from macroscopically normal liver during hepatic resection for neoplasia could provide a novel source of healthy hepatocytes, including the development of reliable protocols for malignant cells removal from the hepatocyte preparation. METHODS: Hepatocytes were procured from resected liver of 18 patients with liver tumors using optimised digestion and cell-enrichment protocols. Suspensions of various known quantities of the HT-29 tumor cell line and patient hepatocytes were treated or not with Ep-CAM-antibody-coated immunomagnetic beads in order to investigate the efficacy of tumor-purging by immunomagnetic depletion, using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR method developed to detect tumor cells. Immunomagnetic bead-treated or bead-untreated tumor cell-hepatocyte suspensions were transplanted intra-peritoneally in Balb/C nude mice to assess the rates of tumor development. RESULTS: Mean viable hepatocyte yield was 9.

Protective effect of liver ischemic preconditioning on rat hepatocytes

“…For clinical hepatocytes transplantation, one limitation is the quality of hepatocytes from the liver [30,31] . Our data indicated that IPC prior to isolation was associated with improved viability and cell function after isolation and short-term cryopreservation.…”