Neural crest derived cells in liver during development and in fibrogenesis

ROMINA SIERRA; AQUINO, JORGE B.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; SAN; 2017

Sociedad Argentina de investigación en Neurociencias

Little is known regarding the contribution of neural crest-derived cells (NCDCs) to the liver. Although this tissue seems to be largely devoid of Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) cells, previous in vitro findings likely suggest that some hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) might be of such origin. Our preliminary results, based on in vivo mouse genetic lineage-tracing studies likely suggest that small numbers of liver parenchymal cells would likely derive from the neural crest. For this purpose, Wnt1-Cre:Rosa26-tomato, PLP-CreERT2:R26-YFP and Sox10-CreERT2:R26-YFP mice were herein used. In PLP-Cre mice, i.e. while few YFP+ HLCs were observed in E18.5 mice after tamoxifen administration at E12.5 cells, virtually no YFP+ cells were found in E18.5 embryos when this drug was administered at E15.5. Interestingly, HLCs of likely neural crest cell (NCC) origin are anatomically distributed following a similar pattern in all strain analyzed. Finally, contribution of NCDCs to the liver seems not to largely change after bile duct ligation. Nevertheless, fibrogenesis induced by chronic applications of thioacetamide, during 8 weeks, caused gliosis and significantly increased numbers of liver parenchymal cells.