The culture of hepatocytes dissociated from adult mice by the collagenase perfusion method enables neurons or neuronal tissues to be cultured with hepatocytes or in hepatocyte-conditioned media. Co-culture with hepatocytes or hepatocyte-conditioned media enhances neurite regeneration and their survival from nerve-transected terminals of dorsal root ganglia with nerve fibers dissected from adult and aged mice. Hepatocytes secrete a factor which enhances not only neurite regeneration but also neurite survival. Activities of other known neurotrophic factors were not as crucial as those of the hepatocyte-conditioned medium, suggesting that this factor may differ from other trophic ones.
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Horie et al. (1991) studied this question.