Characterization of cells in the developing human liver

Identification of local and circulating cancer stem cells in human liver cancer

“…2B). Similar to our findings, the existence of CD90 ϩ cells has been reported in approximately 0.01% in the normal adult liver, 29 and is highest in the neoplastic tissues. 30 Further multimarker analysis demonstrated that certain proportions of CD45 Ϫ CD90 ϩ cells in the tumor tissues concomitantly expressed stem cell markers such as CD133, ESA, CXCR4, CD24, KDR, and CD44 (Supplementary Table 1).…”

Efficient human fetal liver cell isolation protocol based on vascular perfusion for liver cell-based therapy and case report on cell transplantation

“…Little is known about whether CD90/Thy-1, which has been described for adult hepatic progenitors in rodents, [63][64][65] characterizes human hepatic progenitors (as described in 1 case 50 ), although it is often not found in the human liver. 34,48,66 Nava et al 26 could not find CD90 in human fetal hepatic progenitors from the first trimester, but they did find it in cells from the second trimester that coexpressed CD90 and hepatic markers (as we found in low percentages for the late second trimester). In contrast, Fiegel et al 64 found CD90 expression during all stages of rat liver development but at higher levels only in the early developmental stages.…”

“…Although the hematopoietic and hepatic lineages in the FL have been thought to be expressed separately, the shared expression of hematopoietic and hepatic markers has been reported, and a potential lineage relationship between nonhepatic hematopoietic cells and hepatic cells has been discussed. 53,54 In contrast to our work focusing on cells after week 18 in the late second trimester, Nava et al 26 investigated the emergence of progenitors during the earlier development of the human FL and studied the coexpression of known hematopoietic and hepatic cell markers. They reported that hepatic cells emerged after the early second trimester during human FL development and pointed out that early hepatic progenitors coexpressed the hematopoietic markers CD117 and CD34 in the first and early second trimesters.…”

“…Although human FL tissue obtained during the first trimester mainly exhibits cells expressing hematopoietic [21][22][23][24] and endothelial cell markers, 25 the majority of the cells expressing hepatic markers appear in the early second trimester. 26 The presence of hematopoietic cells could be interesting because initial clinical studies of the transplantation of bone marrow-derived stem cell marker-positive cells 27 and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) marker-expressing cells 28 have indicated that both hematopoietic and mesenchymal cell populations in the human FL may also be of interest for the development of liver CT therapy.…”

The stem cell niche of human livers: Symmetry between development and regeneration

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Ductal plates emerge during liver development as part of an angiogenesis/vasculogenesis process involving hedgehog signaling. 4,23,27,29 In separate studies we demonstrated that ductal plates are the location for intense expression of Indian and Sonic hedgehog proteins; hedgehog proteins and signaling was shown also in cultures of hHpSCs; Inhibitors of hedgehog signaling resulted in rapid death of the hHpSCs in culture. 4 The phenotypic profile found for freshly isolated and cultured hHpSCs from livers of all donor ages parallels that found on ductal plate cells and on canals of Hering; in parallel, the phenotypic profile found for freshly isolated and cultured hHB livers of all donor ages parallels that found on hHBs in fetal and neonatal livers and on small numbers of cells tethered to the ends of the canals of Hering.…”