IDENTIFICATION OF NUCLEAR PROTEIN EXPRESSED IN TRANSACTIVATED ITO CELLS

肝纤维化的发展导致肝衰竭、肝细胞癌、食管静脉曲张和自发性腹膜炎，这些是肝硬化中危及生命的并发症。诱导转化的Ito细胞凋亡可能是治疗慢性肝病的一条有前途的途径。Ito细胞纯化技术的进展使我们获得了高纯度的细胞，并对转化过程进行了精确的研究。本研究利用单克隆抗体纯化了Ito细胞转化过程中瞬时表达的核蛋白，经氨基酸序列分析表明其为肌细胞中普遍表达的emelin。我们需要进一步的调查，以认识瞬间表达的Emelin在Ito细胞转化过程中的作用。

Development of liver fibrosis results in hepatic failure, hepatocellular carcinoma, esophageal varices, and spontaneous peritonitis, which are life-threatening complications in liver cirrhosis. Induction of apoptosis in transformed Ito cells maybe a promising way of treatment of chronic liver disease. A new insight into the changes of nuclear protein expressed in the process of transformation may provide an important information for the treatment of liver fibrosis.Progress in purification of Ito cells enabled us to obtain highly-purified cells and we investigate the process of transformation precisely. In this study, we developed monoclonal antibody for purifying nuclear protein transiently expressed in transformed Ito cells during the process of transformation and the analysis of amino acid sequence revealed it as emelin commonly expressed in myocytes. We need further investigation to recognize the role of transient expression of emelin in Ito cells during transformation.