The hepatocyte: heterogeneity and plasticity of liver cells

The heterogeneity of the proliferative response of the liver to injury and during hepatocarcinogenesis implicates at least four levels of cells in the hepatic lineage which respond: the mature unipolar hepatocyte, the unipolar duct cell, a bipolar ductular progenitor cell, and a multipotent periductular liver progenitor cell of presumed extra-hepatic (bone marrow) origin (1). The original concept of "embryonal rests" as the cells or origin of cancer in adult organs (2) may be correct in the sense that progenitor cells in adult tissues that give rise to cancers may derive from circulating pluripotent stem cells.