Injured Liver Conditional Culture Medium Induces Differentiation Of Adult Mouse Mesenchymal Stem Cells Into Hepatocytes In Vitro

The trans-differentiation of adult stem cells into different cell types had became the most hot-spot in the stem cell field. It is important not only in the field of cell development but also in the field of cell transplantation for clinical use. As one of the most important adult stem cells, bone marrow stem cells have high self-renewal capacity and multipotentiality for differentiation. Bone marrow stem cells could differentiate into the mature neurocytes, cadiocytes, endothelial cells, myocytes and islet cells. In the recent years, Peterson et al further demonstrated that transplanted bone marrow stem cells could differentiate into oval cells, hepatocytes and bile duct cells when injection of CCL₄ leads to the liver impairment. However, due to the complexity of in vivo environment, the construction of in vitro culture environment seems to be of great value to elucidate the mechanism of trans-differentiation. Furthermore, although it had been admitted that bone marrow stem cells could differentiate into hepatocytes, whether just one subgroup of bone marrow stem cells or all the subgroups of bone marrow stem cells could differentiate into hepatocytes is still waited to be studied.In this study, injured liver conditional culture medium was used to mimic the in vivo liver impairment microenvironment. Through examining the expression of AFP, CK18, TAT, ALB by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence assay and examining glycogen by Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), we found liver conditional culture medium could successfully induce differentiation of adult mouse mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes in vitro. This study provided the basis for the research in the mechanism of trans-differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes and the foundation of new techniques for clinical use.