“Mature hepatocytes are source of bipotential oval cells in chronic liver injury”. Markus Grompe

The liver is an organ with a high regeneration potential and Markus Grompe is one of the most excellent scientists working in this field. Using lineage tracing mice, he tracked hepatic stem cells that are suppose to product oval cells during severe liver injury. Surprisingly, no oval cells derived from the differentiation of hepatic stem cells were found in presence of different liver injuries. On the other side, mature hepatocytes seem to undergo a reprogramming process forming hepatocyte-derived progenitors that in turn can differentiate to become fully functional hepatocytes. This results suggest that a reprogramming process of mature hepatocytes, and not the classical differentiation of the existing hepatic stem cells, mediates the regenerative response to liver injury providing new fascinating insights into the mechanisms of tissue regeneration.