Oval cells from DDB1 mutant mouse

Quiescent hepatic stem cells (HSCs) can be activated when hepatocyte proliferation is compromised. Chemical injury rodent models have been widely used to study the locazation, biomarkers, and signaling pathways in HSCs, but these models usually exhibit severe promiscuous toxicity and fail to distinguish damaged and non-damaged cells. Our goal is to establish new animal models to overcome these limitations, thereby providing new insights into HSC biology and application. We generated mutant mice with constitutive or inducible deletion of Damaged DNA Binding protein 1 (DDB1), an E3 ubiquitin ligase, in hepatocytes. We show that deletion of DDB1 abolishes self-renewal capacity of mouse hepatocytes in vivo, leading to compensatory activation and proliferation of DDB1-expressing OCs. Importantly, the DDB1 mutant mice exhibit very minor liver damage, compared to a chemical injury model. Microarray analysis reveals several previously unrecognized markers, enriched in oval cells. This genetic model in which irreversible inhibition of hepatocyte duplication results in HSC-driven liver regeneration. The DDB1 mutant mice can be broadly applied to studies of HSC differentiation, HSC niche and HSCs as origin of liver cancer. Total RNA obtained from isolated EpCAM+ cells from DDB1 mutant mice compared to wild type hepatocytes