Short term treatment of old-aged recipient rats with growth hormone improves liver repopulation by transplanted hepatocytes

Hepatocyte transplantation is an alternative to whole liver transplantation. Yet, the cellular and molecular mechansims prompting integration are largely unknown. We previously reported that the poor liver repopulation efficacy by transplanted hepatocytes in adult recipient livers is probably due to the host microenviroment and caused by the inefficient regulation of the growth hormon-IGF1-axis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of growth hormone on liver repopulation by transplantated hepatocytes. The age-dependent proliferative potential of wild type F344 rat hepatocytes was investigated aft…