Recapitulation of Human Embryonic Heartbeat to Promote Differentiation of Hepatic Endoderm to Hepatoblasts.

ABSTRACT: Hepatic development requires multiple sequential physicochemical environmental changes in an embryo, and human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) allow for the elucidation of this embryonic developmental process. However, the current in vitro methods for hPSC-hepatic differentiation, which employ various biochemical substances, produce hPSC-derived hepatocytes with less functionality than primary hepatocytes, due to a lack of physical stimuli, such as heart beating. Here, we developed a microfluidic platform that recapitulates the beating of a human embryonic heart to improve the functionality of hepatoblasts derived from hepatic endoderm (HE) in vitro. This microfluidic platform facilitates the application of multiple mechanical stretching forces, to mimic heart beating, to cult

SUBMITTER: Yoshimoto K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7506096 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature