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Fukuda, A., Kawaguchi, Y., Furuyama, K., Kodama, S., Horiguchi, M., Kuhara, T., Koizumi, M., Boyer, D.F., Fujimoto, K., Doi, R., Kageyama, R., Wright, C.V. and Chiba, T. (2006) Ectopic pancreas formation in Hes1-knockout mice reveals plasticity of endodermal progenitors of the gut, bile duct, and pancreas. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 116, 1484-1493. doi:10.1172/JCI27704

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• TITLE: The combination of epidermal growth factor and glycogen synthase kinase 3 inhibitor support long-term self-renewal of Sca-1 positive hepatic progenitor cells from normal adult mice

  AUTHORS: Cai-Xia Jin, Lisa Samuelson, Cai-Bin Cui, Yang-Zhong Sun, David A. Gerber

  KEYWORDS: Liver Progenitor Cell; Stem Cell Antigen 1; Liver Disease; Hematopoietic Stem Cell

  JOURNAL NAME: Stem Cell Discovery, Vol.3 No.3, July 17, 2013

  ABSTRACT: Isolation and long-term maintenance of hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs) from healthy, non-injured adult livers remains challenging due to the lack of specific surface markers for selection and a limited understanding of the mechanisms for maintaining self-renewal. Previously, we identified a Sca-1 positive, bipotent HPC population in the peri-portal region of adult liver, and found MAPK/ERK and Wnt/β-Catenin pathways to be synergistically involved in their proliferation. In this study, we report the long-term culture of Sca-1 positive HPCs with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and CHIR99021, a small molecule inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3). Sca-1+ HPCs remain non-tumorigenic when passaged 35 times in vitro over 1 year. Flow cytometric analysis indicates that HPCs are positive for Sca-1 and putative liver progenitor cell markers, including CD13, CD24 and Prominin-1, but negative for hematopoietic/endothelial cell markers CD31, CD34, CD45, CD90 and CD117. Immunocyto-chemistry and RT-PCR indicate Sca-1+ HPCs express albumin (ALB), α-fetoprotein (AFP), cytokeratin19 (CK19), Sox9 and a panel of special hepatic progenitor transcriptional factors. Moreover, Sca-1+ HPCs are able to differentiate into hepatocyte-like and cholangiocyte-like cells under appropriate culture conditions in vitro and can take part in liver repopulation in an acetaminophen (APAP) induced liver injury mouse model. This study provides a paradigm to capture and maintain HPCs from naive liver tissue and offers a valuable cell model for investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the cell lineage relationship in normal liver.