Differentiation capacity of hepatic stem/progenitor cells isolated from D‐galactosamine‐treated rat livers
Norihisa Ichinohe, Naoki Tanimizu, Hidekazu Ooe, Yukio Nakamura, Toru Mizuguchi, Junko Kon, Koichi Hirata, Toshihiro Mitaka – 18 September 2012 – Oval cells and small hepatocytes (SHs) are known to be hepatic stem and progenitor cells. Although oval cells are believed to differentiate into mature hepatocytes (MHs) through SHs, the details of their differentiation process are not well understood. Furthermore, it is not certain whether the induced cells possess fully mature functions as MHs.