Fine Tuning of Hepatocyte Differentiation from Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Growth Factor Small Molecule-Based Approaches

Overview

Journal Stem Cells Int

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2019 Feb 27

PMID 30805010

Citations 14

Authors

Divya S Varghese

Thilina Thejinda Alawathugoda

Suraiya A Ansari

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are being utilized in diverse areas of studies such as development and disease modeling, cell replacement therapy, or drug toxicity testing because of their potential to be differentiated into any cell type in the body. The directed differentiation of hESCs into hepatocytes could provide an invaluable source of liver cells for various liver-based applications. Therefore, several protocols have been established in the past for hESC-hepatocyte differentiation based on the knowledge of signaling pathways and growth factors involved in different stages of embryonic hepatogenesis. Although successful derivation of hepatocytes has been achieved through these protocols, the efficiency is not always ideal. Herein, we have tested several combinations of published protocols, for example, growth factor vs. small molecule and different time durations of treatment for definitive endoderm (DE) induction and further hepatocyte differentiation to develop an efficient DE induction and hepatocyte differentiation in a highly reproducible manner based on the stage-specific marker expression and functional analysis.

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