Renji Hospital

About: Renji Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in Shanghai, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicine & Biology. The organization has 1112 authors who have published 714 publications receiving 15442 citations. The organization is also known as: Rénjì Yīyuàn.

Differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Embryonic stem (ES) cells have a pluripotent ability to differentiate into a variety of cell lineages. Cell-to-cell contact is important for cell differentiation. Mouse ES cells were cocultured with mouse fetal liver cells and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) positive ES cells were transplanted into rats liver through the portal vein in order to investigate their potential to differentiate into hepatocytes. METHODS: Mouse ES cells were cocultured with the mouse fetal liver cell line, BNL.CL2. They did not make direct contact; instead the culture media was exchanged freely. After coculture for 48 h, albumin, transthyretin, glucose 6 phosphates, hepatic nuclear factor 4 and SEK1 mRNA were assayed by RT-PCR, and alpha-fetoprotein by immunohistochemistry. The morphology was investigated by microscopy. After transplantion of the GFP-positive ES cells, the whole liver was removed from a rat every four days. The liver slices were examined under a fluorescent microscope to detect the GFP-positive cells. Albumin was detected on the same slices by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: After coculture with BNL.CL2 cells, the differentiated ES cells had the same morphology as the BNL.CL2 cells, and albumin, transthyretin, glucose 6 phosphates and SEK-1 mRNA were found by RT-PCR, and alpha-fetoprotein was detected immuno­histochemically. The transplanted GFP-positive ES cells were found in the rats’ liver slices by GFP fluorescence, and development of teratomas was not observed. The immunohistochemistry results indicated that the transplanted GFP-positive ES cells retained an albumin-producing ability. CONCLUSIONS: Cell-to-cell contact is important for the differentiation of ES cells. Mouse embryonic stem cells can differentiate into hepatocytes directly either in vitro or in vivo.

Susceptibility gene of systemic lupus erythematosus in 16q12 in Chinese cohort

Abstract: Objective To localize susceptibility loci in Chinese systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) cohort by linkage disequilibrium mapping the genomic interval in human chromosome 16 so as to understand whether the pathogenesis of human SLE is related to chromosome 16. Methods Five microsatellite markers in chromosome 16 spanning from 57.79 cM to 65.1 cM were used for fluorescence based genotyping in 157 SLE families. Evidence for linkage disequilibrium was assessed using the extended transmission disequilibrium test (ETDT) program and Genehunter software. Susceptibility gene was searched in the positive locus, and real time PCR method was used to detect gene expression. Results With the ETDT, evidence for linkage disequilibrium of the marker D16S409 ( P =0.0278) and D16S517 ( P 0 0001) with SLE were found. It was observed that 271 bp allele of D16S517 was much in evidence for preferential transmission, while 277 bp allele was found to be transmitted less often than expected. Genehunter analysis is concordant with ETDT. By real time PCR, OAZ(OLF1/ EBF associated zinc finger protein)gene which is located in the positive locus showed higher expression in SLE patients than in normal controls. Conclusion Results reveal that 16q12 (58.46 cM) is associated with Chinese SLE. OAZ is a likely susceptibility gene in this locus for SLE.