Telomerase activity and hepatic functions of rat embryonic liver progenitor cell in nanoscaffold-coated model bioreactor.

Presently, there is growing interest on telomerase activity in all cells (somatic cells, stem cells, cancerous cells and others) since this activity is associated with cellular changes such as proliferation, differentiation, immortalization, cell injury and ageing. Telomerase activity is absent in most of the somatic cells but present in over 90% of cancerous cells and other immortalized cell lines. In our present study, we cultured a rat embryonal liver progenitor cell line RLC-18 in a self-assembly nanostructured scaffold-coated bioreactor (NCB), collagen-coated plates (CCP) and uncoated plates (UP), and evaluated changes of telomerase activity by non radioactive techniques (Telo TAGGG Telomerase PCR ELISA, cell proliferation based on mitochondria number by MTT assay and hepatic functions such as albumin secretion, urea metabolism, Cytochrome P450 activity like ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity. We found less telomerase activity and less cell proliferation, but more hepatic functions on the NCB than on the CCP and UP. Our data support the concept that cell-scaffold interaction may play a significant in controlling the telomerase activity as well as enhanced hepatic functions. Although our present study does not focus on the exact mechanism of telomerase regulation, our result may provide basic clues on cell differentiation whereby telomerase activity inhibits differentiation of cells as in the rat embryonic liver cell line, may be regulated by cell-scaffold interaction and where there is less proliferation, cells perform enhanced hepatic functions, thereby implying that bioartificial liver support may be possible.