Hepatic properties and transplantation of Thy-1+ cells isolated from ED14 rat fetal liver

Thy–1, a phenotypic marker of hematopoietic progenitor cells, is also expressed in activated oval cells of the adult rat liver. Thy1+ cells have also been observed in the rat fetal liver and these cells exhibit properties of bipotent hepatic epithelial progenitor cells in vitro. However, the stem-like properties of Thy–1+ fetal liver cells have not yet been fully established and there is no information available concerning the liver repopulation capacity of Thy1+ fetal liver cells. We therefore isolated Thy–1+ cells from ED14 fetal liver and examined their hepatic gene expression profile and characteristics in v…