Three-dimensional culture and cAMP signaling promote the maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes.

ABSTRACT: Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a novel source of hepatocytes for drug metabolism studies and cell-based therapy for the treatment of liver diseases. These applications are, however, dependent on the ability to generate mature metabolically functional cells from the hPSCs. Reproducible and efficient generation of such cells has been challenging to date, owing to the fact that the regulatory pathways that control hepatocyte maturation are poorly understood. Here, we show that the combination of three-dimensional cell aggregation and cAMP signaling enhance the maturation of hPSC-derived hepatoblasts to a hepatocyte-like population that displays expression profiles and metabolic enzyme levels comparable to those of primary human hepatocytes. Importantly, we also demonstrate tha

SUBMITTER: Ogawa S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4074277 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature