BackgroundOVC is a kind of adult stem cells which posses self-renewing and multipotent differentiation ability. They can not only proliferate for a long time, but also differentiate into bile duct cells and hepatic parenchymal cells, and under certain condition, they can differentiate into intestinal tract epithelial cells and pancreas cells. OVC has an important role in the physiological and pathophysiological process of liver cell development, growth, proliferation, and carcinomatous change. There is few hepatic cells to split and proliferate during the quiescence period, but OVC will be activated and differentiate into hepatic parenchymal cells when liver is badly injured. However, OVC will differentiate into hepatocellular carcinoma under certain surroundings. Studies have shown that OVC existed not only in hering ducts but also in liver leaflets when liver was injured by 3'-methyl-dimethylaminoazobenzene (3'-Me-DAB) and was cancerized. The characters of oval cell are small and oval-shaped, big nucleus and rare plasm. We previously observed that the oval cells...
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