Am J Pathol. 1999 Oct
Bisgaard HC, Müller S, Nagy P, Rasmussen LJ, Thorgeirsson SS.
Abstract
Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to clone genes associated with proliferation of oval cells in rat liver regenerating after a 70% partial hepatectomy combined with the feeding of 2-acetylaminofluorene. A subset of the identified genes comprised interferon-gamma receptor alpha subunit (IFN-gammaRalpha), gp91phox, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), lymphocyte function-associated molecule-1alpha (LFA-1), eukaryotic initiation factor-2-associated 67-kd protein (eIF-2-associated 67-kd protein), and alpha-fetoprotein, which constitute part of the cellular program modulated by IFN-gamma. Therefore, expression analysis performed by Northern blotting and immunohistochemistry were extended to include IFN-gamma, the IFN-gamma receptor beta subunit (IFN-gammaRbeta), three secondary response genes induced by interaction of IFN-gamma with IFN-gamma receptor complexes, ie, IL-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), and a cytokine inducing IFN-gamma expression, ie, interleukin-18 (IL-18). The Northern blot analysis showed that all examined genes were modulated when progenitor-like oval cells were activated and recruited for liver regeneration. Immunohistochemistry localized the subunits of the IFN-gamma receptor complex, IFN-gammaRalpha and IFN-gammaRbeta, the secondary response genes uPAR and ICAM-1, the IFN-gamma-inducing factor IL-18, and ICE to the ductular structures of oval cells. In contrast, during liver regeneration after a 70% partial hepatectomy, only modulation of IL-1beta and ICE was observed. Our results, therefore, indicate that IFN-gamma-mediated events may be particularly important when cells in the bile ductules must respond to liver damage by production of ductular oval cells.
PMID: 10514390
