The roles of transforming growth factor-β, Wnt, Notch and hypoxia on liver progenitor cells in primary liver tumours (Review)

Bogaerts,Eliene; Heindryckx,Femke; Vandewynckel,Yves-Paul; Van Grunsven,Leo A.; Van Vlierberghe,Hans

doi:10.3892/ijo.2014.2286

The roles of transforming growth factor-β, Wnt, Notch and hypoxia on liver progenitor cells in primary liver tumours (Review)

Authors:
- Eliene Bogaerts
- Femke Heindryckx
- Yves-Paul Vandewynckel
- Leo A. Van Grunsven
- Hans Van Vlierberghe
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Affiliations: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 1K12, Ghent University Hospital, 9000 Gent, Belgium, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden, Department of Cell Biology, Liver Cell Biology Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1090 Brussels, Belgium
Published online on: February 3, 2014 https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2014.2286
Pages: 1015-1022
Copyright: © Bogaerts et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY_NC 3.0].

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Abstract

Primary liver tumours have a high incidence and mortality. The most important forms are hepatocellular carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, both can occur together in the mixed phenotype hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma. Liver progenitor cells (LPCs) are bipotential stem cells activated in case of severe liver damage and are capable of forming both cholangiocytes and hepatocytes. Possibly, alterations in Wnt, transforming growth factor-β, Notch and hypoxia pathways in these LPCs can cause them to give rise to cancer stem cells, capable of driving tumourigenesis. In this review, we summarize and discuss current knowledge on the role of these pathways in LPC activation and differentiation during hepatocarcinogenesis.

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