Resected Human Liver Tissue as a Source for Liver Progenitor Cells: Isolation and Characterization of Thy–1 Positive Cells from Non Parenchymal Liver Cell Fractions

Liver regeneration is mainly based on the ability of hepatocytes to proliferate upon stimulation. Additionally it was shown that under certain circumstances liver resident cells with progenitor capabilities either of haematopoietic or hepatic origin are involved in liver cell proliferation and differentiation. We isolated and characterized fractions of nonparenchymal cells (NPC) from human liver resections for expression of haematopoietic and hepatic progenitor cell markers using immunohistochemistry (IHC), FACS and PCR analysis. NPC fractions were obtained as part of the isolation procedure of primary hepatocyt…