Prenatal glucocorticoid administration accelerates the maturation of fetal rat hepatocytes

• Published in: Molecular biology reports 2022-07, Vol.49 (7), p.5831-5842
• Main Authors: Kobayashi, Tsukasa, Takeba, Yuko, Ohta, Yuki, Ootaki, Masanori, Kida, Keisuke, Watanabe, Minoru, Iiri, Taroh, Matsumoto, Naoki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Albumin; albumins; Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; antigens; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Birth; Cell cycle; Cesarean section; Cyclin B; cyclin-dependent kinase; Cyclin-dependent kinases; cyclins; Dexamethasone; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Fetuses; Glucocorticoids; Hepatocyte growth factor; Hepatocytes; Histology; immunohistochemistry; Life Sciences; Liver; Liver diseases; Low birth weight; Maturation; Morphology; Original Article; Polymerase chain reaction; Premature birth; protein synthesis; rats; reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Reverse transcription; risk
• ISSN: 0301-4851; 1573-4978
• DOI: 10.1007/s11033-022-07358-5

Background Prenatal glucocorticoid (GC) is clinically administered to pregnant women who are at risk of preterm birth for the maturation of cardiopulmonary function. Preterm and low-birth-weight infants often experience liver dysfunction after birth because their livers are immature. However, the effects of prenatal GC administration on the liver remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the effects of prenatal GC administration on the maturation of liver hepatocytes in preterm rats. Methods and results Dexamethasone (DEX) was administered to pregnant Wistar rats on gestational days 17 and 19 before cesarean section. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to determine the mRNA levels of albumin, hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 alpha (HNF4α), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), thymus cell antigen 1 (Thy-1), cyclin B, and Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) in the liver samples. Immunohistochemical staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were performed to examine protein production. The hepatocytes enlarged because of growth and prenatal DEX administration. Albumin, HNF4α, and HGF levels increased secondary to growth and prenatal DEX administration. The levels of the cell cycle markers cyclin B and CDK1 gradually decreased during growth and with DEX administration. Conclusions The results suggest that prenatal GC administration leads to hepatocyte maturation via expression of HNF4α and HGF in preterm fetuses.