Adult hepatocytes can undergo Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in culture

The damaging effect of chronic noxes like alcohol intoxication on the liver is believed to be mediated to a great extent via activation of Kupffer cells and hepatic stellate cells and involves action of pro-fibrogenic cytokines among which TGF-β plays a pivotal role. Therefore liver-protective and anti-fibrotic strategies are often aiming at neutralization of TGF-β pathways. Since hepatocytes are the predominant cell type of the liver and are clearly responsive to TGF-β our aim was to delineate in more detail the role of TGF-β signal transduction during liver fibrogenesis especially in hepatocytes. We studied pr…