Treatment of mice with CCl₄ twice a week for 4 weeks developed liver cirrhosis with severe hepatic damage. Then mice were transplanted with bone marrow cells (BMCs) of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) mouse continuing treatment with CCl₄ for another 4 weeks. Transplanted GFP-positive BMCs migrated into the peri-portal lesions of the cirrhotic liver. The transplanted GFP-positive BMCs differentiated into hepatoblasts and then differentiated into albumin-producing hepatocytes. The differentiation "niche" induced by persistent liver damage due to continuous CCl₄ injection seems to be an essential factor. BMC transplantation improved liver function, liver fibrosis and the survival rate. These findings strongly support the development of a new cell therapy using autologous BMCs to treat liver cirrhosis patients. Based on the results obtained in basic research using the GFP/CCl₄ model, human trials for the patients with decompensate liver cirrhosis are now undergoing. Almost all cases showed improved liver function and reduced liver fibrosis marker after BMC transplantation without severe side effects.

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Heat shock transcription factor (HSF) family consists of three members in mammal and regulates expression of heat shock genes via heat shock element. HSF1 and HSF2 are involved in developmental processes such as oogenesis and spermatogenesis, but it is unclear how they regulate these processes. HSF4 is highly expressed in the brain and lung, but its roles are unclear yet. Recently, HSF4 was found to be associated with autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive congential cataract. We found that HSF4-null mice causes cataract with abnormal lens fiber cells containing inclusion-like structure, and increased proliferation and premature differentiation of lens epithelial cells. HSF4 regulates expression of γ-crystallin and FGF genes directly. Thus, HSFs play roles not only in the induction of heat shock gene expression, but also in developmental processes.

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Recently, there have been marked improvements in reproduction-supporting medicine, and various investigations have been carried out concerning infertile patients. However, clinical investigations on reproductive technology in infertile couples have been scarce. We performed a questionnaire survey concerning the attitude toward reproductive technology in 122 patients (58 males aged 36.3±4.5 years and 64 females aged 33.8±3.9 years) being treated for infertility and statistically analyzed their answers according to gender and whether they had children. The survey was performed between October 19, 2002 and August 27, 2003.
The questionnaire having a face sheet consisted of 4 questions concerning the view of living, 5 questions concerning the view of life, 8 questions concerning the value and promotion of reproductive technology, 7 questions concerning artificial insemination by donor (AID), 4 questions concerning the future of reproductive medicine, and 4 questions concerning the attitude toward family planning and reproductive technology in the future.
Concerning reproduction-supporting techniques, the "attitude toward AID" and "management of sperms by a sperm bank rather than for profits" were closely related to whether the respondents had children, and their general attitude was "I would not do it, but I don't care if others do it." Regardless of whether the respondents had children, none approved "donation of ova" or "donation of embryos". Couples with children answered that they expected the use of reproduction technology involving "AIH", "IVF", and "ovulation stimulators", and those without children answered that they expected its use involving "AID", "surrogate delivery", "surrogate mother", "artificial ova", and "artificial sperms".
Gender was closely related to "experience of infertility of the patient himself/herself" and "the presence of (an) infertile person (s) among relatives and close friends", suggesting that gender has some effect on the environmental factors and experience in daily living.
In reproduction-supporting medicine, the protection of privacy of the treated infertile couples, their children, and donors is an important matter, and further ethical, legal, and social discussion in consideration of welfare of the children is anticipated.

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