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8 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 8
Basal MET phosphorylation is an indicator of hepatocyte dysregulation in liver disease

Abstract (Expand)

Abstract Chronic liver diseases are worldwide on the rise. Due to the rapidly increasing incidence, in particular in Western countries, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) …otic liver disease (MASLD) is gaining importance as the disease can develop into hepatocellular carcinoma. Lipid accumulation in hepatocytes has been identified as the characteristic structural change in MASLD development, but molecular mechanisms responsible for disease progression remained unresolved. Here, we uncover in primary hepatocytes from a preclinical model fed with a Western diet (WD) an increased basal MET phosphorylation and a strong downregulation of the PI3K-AKT pathway. Dynamic pathway modeling of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) signal transduction combined with global proteomics identifies that an elevated basal MET phosphorylation rate is the main driver of altered signaling leading to increased proliferation of WD-hepatocytes. Model-adaptation to patient-derived hepatocytes reveal patient-specific variability in basal MET phosphorylation, which correlates with patient outcome after liver surgery. Thus, dysregulated basal MET phosphorylation could be an indicator for the health status of the liver and thereby inform on the risk of a patient to suffer from liver failure after surgery.

Authors: Sebastian Burbano De Lara, Svenja Kemmer, Ina Biermayer, Svenja Feiler, Artyom Vlasov, Lorenza A D’Alessandro, Barbara Helm, Christina Mölders, Yannik Dieter, Ahmed Ghallab, Jan G Hengstler, Christiane Körner, Madlen Matz-Soja, Christina Götz, Georg Damm, Katrin Hoffmann, Daniel Seehofer, Thomas Berg, Marcel Schilling, Jens Timmer, Ursula Klingmüller

Date Published: 12th Jan 2024

Publication Type: Journal

Optimization of extracellular matrix for primary human hepatocyte cultures using mixed collagen-Matrigel matrices.

Abstract (Expand)

Loss of differentiation of primary human hepatocytes (PHHs) ex vivo is a known problem of in vitro liver models. Culture optimizations using collagen type I and Matrigel reduce the dedifferentiation … process but are not able to prevent it. While neither of these extracellular matrices (ECMs) on their own correspond to the authentic hepatic ECM, a combination of them could more closely resemble the in vivo situation. Our study aimed to systematically analyze the influence of mixed matrices composed of collagen type I and Matrigel on the maintenance and reestablishment of hepatic functions. Therefore, PHHs were cultured on mixed collagen-Matrigel matrices in monolayer and sandwich cultures and viability, metabolic capacity, differentiation markers, cellular arrangement and the cells' ability to repolarize and form functional bile canaliculi were assessed by reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), functional assays and immunofluorescence microscopy. Our results show that mixed matrices were superior to pure matrices in maintaining metabolic capacity and hepatic differentiation. In contrast, Matrigel supplementation can impair the development of a proper hepatocytic polarization. Our systematic study helps to compose an optimized ECM to maintain and reestablish hepatic differentiation on cellular and multicellular levels in human liver models.

Authors: L. Seidemann, S. Prinz, J. C. Scherbel, C. Gotz, D. Seehofer, G. Damm

Date Published: 20th Jan 2023

Publication Type: Journal

Diploid hepatocytes drive physiological liver renewal in adult humans

Abstract (Expand)

Physiological liver cell replacement is central to maintaining the organ’s high metabolic activity, although its characteristics are difficult to study in humans. Using retrospective radiocarbon (14C) … birth dating of cells, we report that human hepatocytes show continuous and lifelong turnover, allowing the liver to remain a young organ (average age <3 years). Hepatocyte renewal is highly dependent on the ploidy level. Diploid hepatocytes show more than 7-fold higher annual birth rates than polyploid hepatocytes. These observations support the view that physiological liver cell renewal in humans is mainly dependent on diploid hepatocytes, whereas polyploid cells are compromised in their ability to divide. Moreover, cellular transitions between diploid and polyploid hepatocytes are limited under homeostatic conditions. With these findings, we present an integrated model of homeostatic liver cell generation in humans that provides fundamental insights into liver cell turnover dynamics.

Authors: Paula Heinke, Fabian Rost, Julian Rode, Palina Trus, Irina Simonova, Enikő Lázár, Joshua Feddema, Thilo Welsch, Kanar Alkass, Mehran Salehpour, Andrea Zimmermann, Daniel Seehofer, Göran Possnert, Georg Damm, Henrik Druid, Lutz Brusch, Olaf Bergmann

Date Published: 1st Jun 2022

Publication Type: Journal

Cell atlas of the regenerating human liver after portal vein embolization

Abstract (Expand)

The liver has the remarkable capacity to regenerate. In the clinic, this capacity can be induced by portal vein embolization (PVE), which redirects portal blood flow resulting in liver hypertrophy in …pertrophy in locations with increased blood supply, and atrophy of embolized segments. Here we apply single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptomics on healthy, hypertrophied, and atrophied patient-derived liver samples to explore cell states in the liver during regeneration. We first establish an atlas of cell subtypes from the healthy human liver using fresh and frozen tissues, and then compare post-PVE samples with their reference counterparts. We find that PVE alters portal-central zonation of hepatocytes and endothelial cells. Embolization upregulates expression programs associated with development, cellular adhesion and inflammation across cell types. Analysis of interlineage crosstalk revealed key roles for immune cells in modulating regenerating tissue responses. Altogether, our data provides a rich resource for understanding homeostatic mechanisms arising during human liver regeneration and degeneration.

Authors: Agnieska Brazovskaja, Tomás Gomes, Christiane Körner, Zhisong He, Theresa Schaffer, Julian Connor Eckel, René Hänsel, Malgorzata Santel, Timm Denecke, Michael Dannemann, Mario Brosch, Jochen Hampe, Daniel Seehofer, Georg Damm, J. Gray Camp, Barbara Treutlein

Date Published: 3rd Jun 2021

Publication Type: Journal

In Vivo and In Vitro Characterization of Primary Human Liver Macrophages and Their Inflammatory State

Abstract (Expand)

Liver macrophages (LMs) play a central role in acute and chronic liver pathologies. Investigation of these processes in humans as well as the development of diagnostic tools and new therapeutic strategies … require in vitro models that closely resemble the in vivo situation. In our study, we sought to gain further insight into the role of LMs in different liver pathologies and into their characteristics after isolation from liver tissue. For this purpose, LMs were characterized in human liver tissue sections using immunohistochemistry and bioinformatic image analysis. Isolated cells were characterized in suspension using FACS analyses and in culture using immunofluorescence staining and laser scanning microscopy as well as functional assays. The majority of our investigated liver tissues were characterized by anti-inflammatory LMs which showed a homogeneous distribution and increased cell numbers in correlation with chronic liver injuries. In contrast, pro-inflammatory LMs appeared as temporary and locally restricted reactions. Detailed characterization of isolated macrophages revealed a complex disease dependent pattern of LMs consisting of pro- and anti-inflammatory macrophages of different origins, regulatory macrophages and monocytes. Our study showed that in most cases the macrophage pattern can be transferred in adherent cultures. The observed exceptions were restricted to LMs with pro-inflammatory characteristics.

Authors: Andrea Zimmermann, René Hänsel, Kilian Gemünden, Victoria Kegel-Hübner, Jonas Babel, Hendrik Bläker, Madlen Matz-Soja, Daniel Seehofer, Georg Damm

Date Published: 1st Apr 2021

Publication Type: Journal

Mutual Zonated Interactions of Wnt and Hh Signaling Are Orchestrating the Metabolism of the Adult Liver in Mice and Human

Abstract (Expand)

The Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/β-Catenin (Wnt) cascades are morphogen pathways whose pronounced influence on adult liver metabolism has been identified in recent years. How both pathways communicate and … control liver metabolic functions are largely unknown. Detecting core components of Wnt and Hh signaling and mathematical modeling showed that both pathways in healthy liver act largely complementary to each other in the pericentral (Wnt) and the periportal zone (Hh) and communicate mainly by mutual repression. The Wnt/Hh module inversely controls the spatiotemporal operation of various liver metabolic pathways, as revealed by transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analyses. Shifting the balance to Wnt (activation) or Hh (inhibition) causes pericentralization and periportalization of liver functions, respectively. Thus, homeostasis of the Wnt/Hh module is essential for maintaining proper liver metabolism and to avoid the development of certain metabolic diseases. With caution due to minor species-specific differences, these conclusions may hold for human liver as well.

Authors: Erik Kolbe, Susanne Aleithe, Christiane Rennert, Luise Spormann, Fritzi Ott, David Meierhofer, Robert Gajowski, Claus Stöpel, Stefan Hoehme, Michael Kücken, Lutz Brusch, Michael Seifert, Witigo von Schoenfels, Clemens Schafmayer, Mario Brosch, Ute Hofmann, Georg Damm, Daniel Seehofer, Jochen Hampe, Rolf Gebhardt, Madlen Matz-Soja

Date Published: 1st Dec 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Epigenomic map of human liver reveals principles of zonated morphogenic and metabolic control

Abstract (Expand)

A deeper epigenomic understanding of spatial organization of cells in human tissues is an important challenge. Here we report the first combined positional analysis of transcriptomes and methylomes … across three micro-dissected zones (pericentral, intermediate and periportal) of human liver. We identify pronounced anti-correlated transcriptional and methylation gradients including a core of 271 genes controlling zonated metabolic and morphogen networks and observe a prominent porto-central gradient of DNA methylation at binding sites of 46 transcription factors. The gradient includes an epigenetic and transcriptional Wnt signature supporting the concept of a pericentral hepatocyte regeneration pathway under steady-state conditions. While donors with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease show consistent gene expression differences corresponding to the severity of the disease across all zones, the relative zonated gene expression and DNA methylation patterns remain unchanged. Overall our data provide a wealth of new positional insights into zonal networks controlled by epigenetic and transcriptional gradients in human liver.

Authors: Mario Brosch, Kathrin Kattler, Alexander Herrmann, Witigo von Schönfels, Karl Nordström, Daniel Seehofer, Georg Damm, Thomas Becker, Sebastian Zeissig, Sophie Nehring, Fabian Reichel, Vincent Moser, Raghavan Veera Thangapandi, Felix Stickel, Gustavo Baretton, Christoph Röcken, Michael Muders, Madlen Matz-Soja, Michael Krawczak, Gilles Gasparoni, Hella Hartmann, Andreas Dahl, Clemens Schafmayer, Jörn Walter, Jochen Hampe

Date Published: 1st Dec 2018

Publication Type: Not specified

A unifying mathematical model of lipid droplet metabolism reveals key molecular players in the development of hepatic steatosis.

Abstract (Expand)

The liver responds to elevated plasma concentrations of free fatty acids (FFAs) with an enhanced uptake of FFAs and their esterification to triacylglycerol (TAG). On the long term, this may result in … massive hepatic TAG accumulation called steatosis hepatitis. In hepatocytes, the poor water-soluble TAG is packed in specialized organelles: Lipid droplets (LDs) serving as transient cellular deposit and lipoproteins (LPs) transporting TAG and cholesterol esters to extra-hepatic tissues. The dynamics of these organelles is controlled by a variety of regulatory surface proteins (RSPs). Assembly and export of VLDLs are mainly regulated by the microsomal transfer protein (MTP) and apoprotein B100. Formation and lipolysis of LDs are regulated by several RSPs. The best studied regulators belong to the PAT (Perilipin/Adipophilin/TIP47) and CIDE families. Knockdown or overexpression of SRPs may significantly affect the total number and size distribution of LDs. Intriguingly, a large cell-to-cell heterogeneity with respect to the number and size of LDs has been found in various cell types including hepatocytes. These findings suggest that the extent of cellular lipid accumulation is determined not only by the imbalance between lipid supply and utilization but also by variations in the expression of RSPs and metabolic enzymes. To better understand the relative regulatory impact of individual processes involved in the cellular TAG turnover, we developed a comprehensive kinetic model encompassing the pathways of the fatty acid and triglyceride metabolism and the main molecular processes governing the dynamics of LDs. The model was parametrized such that a large number of experimental in vitro and in vivo findings are correctly recapitulated. A control analysis of the model revealed that variations in the activity of FFA uptake, diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) 2, and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) have the strongest influence on the cellular TAG level. We used the model to simulate LD size distributions in human hepatoma cells and hepatocytes exposed to a challenge with FFAs. A random fold change by a factor of about two in the activity of RSPs was sufficient to reproduce the large diversity of droplet size distributions observed in individual cells. Under the premise that the same extent of variability of RSPs holds for the intact organ, our model predicts variations in the TAG content of individual hepatocytes by a factor of about 3-6 depending on the nutritional regime. Taken together, our modeling approach integrates numerous experimental findings on individual processes in the cellular TAG metabolism and LD dynamics metabolism to a consistent state-of-the-art dynamic network model that can be used to study how changes in the external conditions or systemic parameters will affect the TAG content of hepatocytes.

Authors: C. Wallstab, D. Eleftheriadou, T. Schulz, G. Damm, D. Seehofer, J. Borlak, H. G. Holzhutter, N. Berndt

Date Published: 2nd Aug 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

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