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Recently, it has been suggested that hepatocytes might have the potential to transdifferentiate or dedifferentiate under physiological or pathological conditions<jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocytes in liver fibrosis has also been proposed. However, these findings have not been fully confirmed. In this study, hepatocytes were genetically labelled for cell fate tracing using lacZ via the tamoxifen-induced CreERT\/loxP system. After induction with tamoxifen, alb\u2009+\u2009cells were permanently marked by lacZ expression, and all progeny lacZ\u2009+\u2009cells were derived from a single source with no interference. We did not observe transdifferentiation or dedifferentiation of hepatocytes into cholangiocytes or hepatic progenitor cells under conditions of liver homeostasis or following a 2\/3 partial hepatectomy. Meanwhile, lacZ\/OPN-positive cells were observed in livers of 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine-fed mice, and lacZ\/alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cells were detected in carbon tetrachloride-induced chronic liver injury models. These results suggested that some existing differentiated alb\u2009+\u2009cells might have the potential of\u00a0transdifferentiation\/dedifferentiation\u00a0or epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition<jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>in some liver injury\u00a0models, but the proportion of these alb\u2009+\u2009cells in liver was very low, and their significance and actual function during the pathological process remains to be elucidated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-017-15973-7","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,17]],"date-time":"2017-11-17T10:45:51Z","timestamp":1510915551000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Fate tracing of hepatocytes in mouse liver"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Xiaowen","family":"Gu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Danyi","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Ci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiahao","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mengjie","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hua","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhugang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhejin","family":"Sheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ruilin","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7755-0818","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jian","family":"Fei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"15973_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"897","DOI":"10.1586\/17474124.2014.934358","volume":"8","author":"GK Michalopoulos","year":"2014","unstructured":"Michalopoulos, G. 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