Hepatocyte growth factor accelerates the proliferation of hepatic oval cells and possibly promotes the differentiation in a 2‐acetylaminofluorene/partial hepatectomy model in rats

Abstract

These results indicate that, besides the proliferation of hepatic oval cells, HGF possibly promotes the differentiation to hepatocytes in vivo, suggesting that recombinant human HGF accelerates the regeneration of severely damaged livers, a situation in which the proliferation of mature hepatocytes is impaired.