Stimulating effects of bovine small intestine mucosal factors on rat hepatocyte development.

A mass of pure adult rat parenchymal hepatocytes, obtained by a newly devised isolation technique, developed into organized micro-liverlike layered multicellular colonies in long-term primary cultures grown in the presence of bovine small intestine mucosal factors (SIMFs). These factors stimulated proliferation, aggregation, and orderly arrangement of the hepatocytes, and differentiation into partially functional micro-livers in vitro. SIMFs derived from other mammalian species affected rat hepatocytes in the same manner. Studies of the effects of mammalian SIMFs on hepatocytes may provide new insights into the kinetics and mechanisms of liver regeneration.