Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lysy, Philippe A.
• Smets, Françoise
• Najimi, Mustapha
• Sokal, Etienne M

Titel

Leukemia inhibitory factor contributes to hepatocyte-like differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Ist Teil von

• Differentiation (London), 2008-12, Vol.76 (10), p.1057-1067

Ort / Verlag

Malden, USA: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The current majority of protocols for hepatocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are conducted using oncostatin M (OSM) as an inducer of hepatocyte-like maturation. As leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and OSM share similar signaling pathways, we examined whether LIF could play a role in the hepatocyte differentiation process. A differentiation protocol was designed using LIF as a maturation cytokine and this was compared with standard and control protocols applied to human MSCs of bone marrow origin. We observed that mesenchymal-derived hepatocyte-like cells (MDHLCs) acquired similar morphological changes when exposed to LIF or to OSM. Using protein and gene expression assays, we noticed a comparable hepatic marker expression in both differentiation conditions. Furthermore, LIF and OSM allowed the acquisition of equivalent levels of hepatocyte-like functionality as attested by evaluation of urea secretion and glycogen deposition. However, no increase in the expression of hepatocyte-like features could be observed in MDHLCs after a combined exposition to LIF and OSM. In conclusion, we demonstrated that LIF can play a similar role as OSM in the hepatocyte differentiation process of human MSCs.