Intrahepatic Transplantation Of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells For Therapy To Repair Damaged Liver

In Vivo Induced Committed-differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Hepatocytes for Therapy to Repair Damaged LiverObjective To observe whether bone mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the potential to transdifferentiate into functional hepatocyte-like cells in the special"niche"as well as the therapeutic feasibility to repair damaged liver.Methods 20 nude mice were randomly divided into four groups (n=5 in each group): Group A:0.5mL/kg of carbon tetrachloride(CCl4) was injected into the peritoneum of mice twice a week for 5 weeks. GFP-positive MSCs(1×106cells) were injected into the caudal tail vein 1 week after the first dose of CCl4;Group B: treated with CCl4 as in A,but received the same volume of saline; Group C:normal nude mice with GFP-positive MSCs Transplanted in the same way as in A. Group D: normal controls.4 weeks after the transplantation,all animal subjects were killed. Liver function tests (LFT) , histology as well as double immunofluorescent staining for GFP and albumin were studied in all groups.Results The hepatic fibrosis in group A & B confirm the success of model for liver damage. GFP-positive MSCs were mainly observed around portal area or interspace of lobules in group A. Some of GFP-positive cells also express albumin.While in group B,C or D,there is no such findings. The level of serum albumun in group A was higher than that in group B(P<0.05) while the level of ALT was also different between two groups(P<0.05). Conclusion The stimulus of persistent liver damage...