Fig. 4. Quantitative analysis of the effect of HGF and OSM on sorted ALB^– and ALB⁺ cells. FACS-sorted ALB^– and ALB⁺ cells were cultured separately with or without HGF or OSM on type IV collagen-coated dishes for 10 days. Then, quantitative PCR was performed to determine the expression of several hepatocyte or cholangiocyte marker genes. Representative data from a transfected stem cell clone are shown; three samples were examined for each GF. Data are mean±s.d. (A) In the ALB^– cell culture, HGF strongly induced ALB and At expression. The mid-latter marker G6P was induced exclusively by OSM, but TO expression was still not detected. In the ALB⁺ cell culture, however, OSM strongly induced G6P and TO expression. The expression of ALB in the ALB⁺ sorted cell cultures was also promoted by HGF and OSM, but its effects were not greater than in ALB^– cells. (B) Both HGF and OSM suppressed the expression of cholangiocyte marker genes such as CK19 and GGT in ALB^– and ALB⁺ sorted cell cultures. All data were normalized to the values of no-GF and fold differences are shown. ND, not detected.