Fig. 1. Selected properties of progenitor liver cells in culture. (A) shows G-6-P,
glycogen, DPPIV and GGT expression immediately after isolation of
hepatoblasts. The arrow in the lower left panel indicates a binucleated
hepatoblast. (B) Electron microscopy of cultured cells in the third passage
(P3) showing epithelial morphology with characteristic nuclei and prominent
nucleoli. The inset shows microvilli (arrows) and bile canalicular-type
structure in two adjacent cells, which was in agreement with the epithelial
morphology of the cells. Bar, 2 µm. (C) Primary culture of isolated cells
with expression of various liver markers. These cells had been in culture for
3 weeks with depletion of non-adherent cells from the culture. (D) The fifth
passage culture, showing heaped up cells expressing liver genes, which is
identical to primary cultures. (E and F) show colocalization of glycogen
(purple color) and CK-19 (brown color, arrows) in P1 progenitor cells arranged
as monolayers (E) or cell heaps (F). The cells were isolated from livers
#21198, #32593 and 210991.
