CCl4, carbon tetrachloride; cDNA, complementary DNA; HNF-4α, hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α; NF-κB, nuclear factor κB; qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Liver cirrhosis was induced as described beginning in 4-week-old

inbred male Lewis rats, weighing 100-130 g, using Phenobarbital (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4, Sigma).16 Specific details are provided in the Supporting Information. Four-week-old male inbred Nagase analbuminemic rats (weighing approximately 100-130g) were treated with two doses of 30 mg/kg retrorsine, a pyrrolizidine alkaloid that inhibits hepatocyte proliferation,17-19 given 2 weeks apart via intraperitoneal injection. Four weeks after the last injection, a 70% partial hepatectomy was selleck compound performed to induce donor hepatocyte proliferation. Hepatectomy was performed via ligation of the median and left lateral lobes of the liver. Animals (five per group) then underwent transplantation via the spleen with primary hepatocytes isolated from normal or cirrhotic rat livers or received intrasplenic injection of 0.1 mL Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium as a control. Cyclosporine was given to control rejection by daily intramuscular injection at

15 mg/kg body weight. Five million cells for each transplantation procedure were washed, resuspended in 0.1 mL of phosphate-buffered saline, and injected into the splenic pulp over 30 selleck products seconds using a 27-gauge needle. Primary

hepatocytes injected into the spleens of recipient noncirrhotic rodents are known to migrate and engraft into the liver parenchyma. Hepatocytes from four donor sources were used for these studies: 6- and 9-month-old control naïve Lewis rats (control); 6-month-old Resminostat Lewis rats treated for 14 weeks with phenobarbital and CCl4 to induce cirrhosis with normal liver function (cirrhosis without liver failure); and 9-month-old Lewis rats treated with at least 26 weeks of phenobarbital and CCl4 to induce stable cirrhosis-induced (Child-Pugh class C) liver failure (cirrhosis with chronic liver failure). All RNA samples were analyzed using an Agilent Bioanalyzer Lab-on-a-Chip Nano 6000 chip to determine the integrity and concentration of the samples. Only samples passing this quality control step with a mass ratio of the 28S to 18S RNA peaks of ≥2.0 were used for expression analysis. Twenty micrograms of total RNA was indirectly labeled using amino-allyl deoxyuridine triphosphate and an anchored oligo(dT)20 to prime reverse-transcription. Fluorescent label (CyDye, Amersham Biosciences) was coupled to the complementary DNA (cDNA) and hybridized to the PancChip version 5.0 13K cDNA microarray.