Conversion of pancreatic cells to hepatocytes

Transdifferentiation is the name used to describe the conversion of one differentiated cell type to another. During development, the liver and pancreas arise from the same region of the endoderm and cells from the two organs can transdifferentiate in the adult under different experimental procedures. We have produced two in vitro models for the transdifferentiation of pancreatic cells to hepatocytes. The first utilizes a pancreatic exocrine cell line AR42J-B13 and the second comprises cultures of mouse embryonic pancreas. We have analysed the pancreatic hepatocytes and they express a range of liver markers including albumin, transferrin and transthyretin. We also present evidence for (i) the molecular mechanism which regulates the conversion between pancreas and liver and (ii) the cellular basis of the switch in phenotype.

Expression and compartmentalization of integral plasma membrane proteins by hepatocytes and their progenitors in the rat pancreas

A combination of Western blotting, Northern blotting and immunofluorescence was used to examine the expression and compartmentalization of plasma membrane proteins by those hepatocyte-like cells that arise in the pancreases of rats subjected to sequential dietary copper depletion and repletion. The pancreatic hepatocytes were found to: (1) express several integral membrane proteins known to be concentrated within the apical, lateral or basolateral domains of the plasma membranes of hepatocytes in liver; and (2) compartmentalize the membrane proteins to equivalent plasma membrane domains, despite the organization of these cells into clusters instead of highly vascularized plates. The apical plasma membrane proteins dipeptidylpeptidase IV and HA 4 were found to line bile canaliculus-like openings between adjacent pancreatic hepatocytes; these openings were shown to be continuous with the pancreatic exocrine duct by India ink infusion. In contrast, the basolateral plasma membrane protein rat hepatic lectin-1 and lateral plasma membrane protein HA 321 were detected elsewhere about the surfaces of the pancreatic hepatocytes: by analogy to their respective localizations on hepatocytes in liver, rat hepatic lectin-1 was concentrated on those surfaces exposed to the pancreatic matrix at the periphery of the hepatocyte clusters (the basal surface equivalent), whereas HA 321 was concentrated on those surfaces exposed to adjacent hepatocytes within the clusters. The hepatocyte plasma membrane proteins were found to be expressed in the pancreas at different times during the copper depletion/repletion protocol: for example, rat hepatic lectin-1 and the bulk of the HA 4 were expressed relatively late in the protocol, only after large numbers of pancreatic hepatocytes had appeared; whereas dipeptidylpeptidase IV was induced greater than 10-fold early in the protocol and proved to be an apical-specific marker for those ductular epithelial cells that are believed to be the progenitors of the pancreatic hepatocytes.

Androgen regulated expression of the alpha 2u-globulin gene in pancreatic hepatocytes of rat.

Under a copper-deficient regimen, pancreatic cells in the adult rat can be found to undergo differentiation into hepatocytes. Pancreatic hepatocytes induced in male and female rats were examined for the expression of the androgen-inducible hepatic protein, alpha 2u-globulin. Alpha 2u-Globulin protein was demonstrable by immunoperoxidase method in all the pancreatic hepatocytes of male rats. Northern blot analysis confirmed the presence of 1.3 kb alpha 2u-globulin mRNA transcript in the pancreas of male rats with hepatocytes. Orchiectomy resulted in marked decrease of alpha 2u-globulin protein and its mRNA. Administration of dihydrotestosterone to castrated rats resulted in increased levels of alpha 2u-globulin mRNA and the amount of alpha 2u-globulin protein in the pancreatic hepatocytes. Unlike normal males, in intact and ovariectomized females alpha 2u-globulin was not detectable in pancreatic hepatocytes. These results indicate that similar to hepatic parenchymal cells pancreatic hepatocytes synthesize alpha 2u-globulin under androgenic regulation. Furthermore, unlike in liver where it is expressed predominantly in perivenular and midlobular hepatocytes, there is no localized difference in the expression of this gene in the transdifferentiated pancreatic hepatocytes.