Figure 4

Migration and hepatocyte differentiation of MLpvNG2⁺ cells in liver cirrhosis.

(Aa–c) Engrafted MLpvNG2⁺ cells labeled by CFSE (green) appeared around blood vessels in DEN-induced cirrhotic liver at 1 d (a), 2 d (b) and 7 d (c) (grafted cells indicated as arrows; vessels indicated as arrowheads). Immunocytochemistry of engrafted CFSE-labeled MLpvNG2⁺ cells differentiated into alpha fetal protein (AFP⁺) hepatic stem/progenitors (a, shown as arrows) and Alb⁺ cells (b, shown as arrowheads) at 1d (B), 2 d (C) and 7 d (D). (E) Summarized data depicting the % AFP⁺ and Alb⁺ differentiation in vivo (n = 6). (F) CFSE-labeled MLpvNG2⁺ cells was isolated from the DEN-induced cirrhotic plus MLpvNG2⁺ cell treatment liver by FACS sorting on d7 and relative mRNA expression levels of various hepatic developmental associated genes against un-transplanted MLpvNG2⁺ cells were detected by qRT-PCR (n = 3). *P < 0.05, AFP: d1 compared with d2; d1 compared with d7; d2 compared with d7 (reduced AFP number). **P < 0.01, Alb: d1 compared with d2; d1 compared with d7; d2 compared with d7 (increased Alb number). P values also refer to Panel (E) and/or (F). Data are shown as mean ± SEM of duplicate preparations from 6 independent experiments. Scale bar = 100 μm.