Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-1β are important cytokines in repair of the cirrhotic liver after bone marrow cell infusion: comparison of humans and model mice.

We previously described the effectiveness of autologous bone marrow cell infusion (ABMi) therapy for patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). We analyzed chronological changes in 19 serum cytokines as well as levels of specific cytokines in patients after ABMi therapy and in a mouse model of cirrhosis generated using green fluorescent protein (GFP)/carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). We measured expression profiles of cytokines in serum samples collected from 13 patients before and at 1 day and 1 week after ABMi. Child-Pugh scores significantly improved in all of these patients. To analyze the meaning of early cytokine change, we infused GFP-positive bone marrow cells (BMCs) into mice with CCl4-induced LC and obtained serum and tissue samples at 1 day and as well as at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks later. We compared chronological changes in serum cytokine expression in humans and in the model mice at 1 day and 1 week after BMC infusion. Among 19 cytokine, both granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and interleukin-1β(IL-1β) in serum was found to show the same chronological change pattern between human and mice model. Next, we examined changes in cytokine expression in cirrhosis liver before and at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks after BMC infusion. Both G-CSF and IL-1β were undetectable in the liver tissues before and at 1 week after BMC infusion but increased at 2 weeks and continued until 4 weeks after infusion. The infused BMCs induced an early decrease of both G-CSF and IL-1β in serum and an increase in the model mice with LC. These dynamic cytokine changes might be important to repair liver cirrhosis after BMC infusion.