Selective proliferation of rat hepatocyte progenitor cells in serum-free culture.

This protocol details a method of obtaining selectively proliferated hepatocyte progenitor cells using hyaluronic acid (HA)-coated dishes and serum-free medium. A small hepatocyte (SH) is a hepatocyte progenitor cell of adult livers and has many hepatic functions. When the rat SH begins to proliferate, CD44 is specifically expressed. To define the purification of SH, CD44 and cytokeratin 8 are used as marker proteins. The growth of SHs is faster on HA-coated dishes than on other extracellular matrix-coated ones. The use of both DMEM/F12 medium and HA-coated dishes allows the selective proliferation of SHs in culture. The purification of SHs is approximately 85% at day 10.