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Isolation and 3D Collagen Sandwich Culture of Primary Mouse Hepatocytes to Study the Role of Cytoskeleton in Bile Canalicular Formation In Vitro
Published on: December 20, 2019
Tight junction proteins and signal transduction pathways in hepatocytes
Takashi Kojima1, Masaki Murata, Toshinobu Yamamoto
1Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. ktakashi@sapmed.ac.jp
Abstract:
Tight junctions of hepatocytes play crucial roles in the barrier to keep bile in bile canaliculi away from the blood circulation, which we call the blood-billiary-barrier (Kojima et al., 2003). Tight junction proteins of hepatocytes are regulated by various cytokines and growth factors via distinct signal transduction pathways. They are also considered to participate in signal transduction pathways that regulate epithelial cell proliferation, gene expression, differentiation and morphogenesis. This review focuses on recent findings about the relationship between tight junction proteins and signal transduction pathways in hepatocytes.
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