Abstract
In this issue of The American Journal of Pathology, Bisgaard et al report the expression of the gp340/DMBT1 gene in oval cells proliferating in rat liver during the generation of new lineages of hepatocytes from stem/progenitor cells, but not in the new hepatocytes themselves. 1 Bisgaard et al cloned and sequenced the gp340/DMBT1 gene that is expressed in rat liver oval cells, demonstrating that it is a splice variant of a gene family that codes for a class of related proteins that includes the opsonin receptor, which participates in innate immunity, and the ductin/ebnerin/hensin group of proteins that modulate the differentiation and function of several types of epithelial cells. The gp340/DMBT1 gene, which may have a critical role in regulating the differentiation of hepatocytes from oval cells, joins several other immune modulating genes that participate in the molecular regulation of hepatocyte generation in adult animals. In this commentary we attempt to place this new information in the context of current insights into the molecular regulation of hepatocyte formation in livers of adult animals.
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