Regulation of asialoglycoprotein receptor expression in the proliferative state of hepatocytes.

It is necessary to proliferate hepatocytes and to increase the number of hepatocytes for development of bioartificial liver (BAL) and reconstitutive therapy. But usually the cell has a precarious balance between proliferation and differentiation: as the cell proliferation increases, functional differentiation decreases. Therefore, it is desirable for the hepatocytes to be functional by differentiation as a material for such clinical use not to be proliferative. In this study, we investigated the background of hepatocyte proliferation for the springboard of control between proliferation and differentiation of hepatocytes, and we focused attention to the asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGP-R) of the hepatocytes. Partially hepatectomized (PH) rats were used as a model animal. When the isolated hepatocytes were plated onto the artificial extracellular matrix of poly-(N-p-vinylbenzyl-O-beta-d-galactopyranosyl-d-gluconamide) (PVLA) having galactose residues as cell-specific ligand, the rate of adhesion was decreased along with liver regeneration. Interestingly, the release of the ASGP-R from hepatocytes in serum after PH in vivo and reduction of ASGP-R of the hepatocytes in the proliferative state occurred due to cell growth in vitro. It is suggested that the ASGP-R on the hepatocyte surface during the differentiation was released in the proliferative state. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.