The liver increases its size during pregnancy to adapt to metabolic demand associated with pregnancy. Our previous study showed that proliferation of maternal hepatocytes are increased during pregnancy in mice and that estradiol (E2) is one of the candidate hormones responsible for maternal hepatocyte proliferation. Here, we discovered that chorionic gonadotropin (CG) induces maternal hepatocyte proliferation during pregnancy. CG administration was sufficient to stimulate hepatocyte proliferation in non-pregnant mice as well as in cell culture system. We conclude that CG stimulates proliferation in the early pregnancy of maternal hepatocytes. In contrast, estrogen stimulates hepatocyte proliferation in the late pregnancy.

肝脏在怀孕期间会增大，以适应与怀孕相关的代谢需求。我们之前的研究表明，小鼠妊娠期间母体肝细胞的增殖增加，雌二醇 (E2) 是导致母体肝细胞增殖的候选激素之一。在这里，我们发现绒毛膜促性腺激素 (CG) 在怀孕期间诱导母体肝细胞增殖。CG 给药足以刺激未怀孕小鼠以及细胞培养系统中的肝细胞增殖。我们得出结论，CG 会刺激母体肝细胞在妊娠早期的增殖。相反，雌激素在妊娠晚期刺激肝细胞增殖。