Figure 3.
(Above). Conversion of pancreatic AR42J-B13 cells to hepatocytes. Dexamethasone treatment (2 weeks) leads to the formation of flattened epithelial-like cells almost completely lacking expression of the pancreatic marker amylase (A), while the liver marker albumin (B) is induced following 3 weeks treatment with Dexamethasone. AR42J-B13 cells were transfected with nuclear GFP and stained for the liver marker glucose-6-phosphatase following 5 days in the presence of Dexamethasone. Untreated transfected B13 cells (C) do not express glucose-6-phosphatase while treated some treated cells acquire the cytoplasmic glucose-6-phosphatase staining and retain nuclear GFP (D), indicating that transdifferentiated hepatocytes arise directly from AR42J-B13 cells.55 Reproduced with permission.