Liver endothelial cells

Group leaderF Yasuhiro Hayashi (Assistant professor)


 
























Liver plays an important role for production of bile, metabolism of energy sources such as carbohydrate, lipid, and protein, detoxification, synthesis of albumin and glucose. These important functions execute in the hepatocyte, the number of which accounts for approximately 80% of whole liver cells. The remaining 20% of cells consists of non-parenchymal cells such as endothelial cells, kupffer cells, and stellate cells (Fig1).

Dysfunction of liver leads to serious many diseases such as hepatic steatosis, type 2 diabetes, hepatitis, and liver cirrhosis. For many liver disease cases, liver results in inflammatory condition, and many kinds of cytokines and chemical mediators are secreted in various type of cells (Table1; Ramadori G et al. J Physiol Pharmacol. 2008).
  In our project, innovative drug delivery system targeted for liver endothelial cells will be developed. The constructed delivery system is expected to be useful for revealing the mechanism of these diseases, and furthermore, leads to innovative therapy for liver diseases.