Name: efficient differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into liver cells
Uploaded: 2019-06-11T13:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Efficient Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells into Liver Cells at JoVE.com

We thank Bing Lim&#160;for discussions and the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology &#38; Regenerative Medicine for infrastructure support. This work was supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (DISC2-10679) and the Stanford-UC Berkeley Siebel Stem Cell Institute (to L.T.A. and K.M.L.) and the Stanford Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine as well as the Anonymous, Baxter and DiGenova families (to K.M.L.).

1. Preparation of Differentiation Media
NOTE: Refer to the Table of Materials for manufacturer information regarding the materials and reagents used.
<ol>
	<li>Preparation of base chemically defined media (CDM) 
	NOTE: CDM2, CDM3, CDM4 and CDM5 are chemically defined media that are used as base medias for differentiating hPSCs to liver cells at various stages. The composition of these medias can be found in Table 1.
	<o...

<ol>
	<li>Bernal, W., Wendon, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Acute+Liver+Failure.">Acute Liver Failure.</a> New England Journal of Medicine. 369, 2525-2534 (2013).</li><li>Ang, L. T., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+Roadmap+for+Human+Liver+Differentiation+from+Pluripotent+Stem+Cells.">A Roadmap for Human Liver Differentiation from Pluripotent Stem Cells.</a> Cell Reports. 22, 2190-2205 (2018).</li><li>Fisher, R. A., Strom, S. C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Human+Hepatocyte+Transplantation:+Worldwide+Results.">Human Hepatocyte Transplantation: Worldwide Results.</a> Transplantation. 82, 441-449 (2006).</li><li>Dhawan, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Clinical+human+hepatocyte+transplantation:+Current+status+and+challenges.">Clinical human hepatocyte transplantation: Current status and challenges.</a> Liver transplantation. 21, S39-S44 (2015).</li><li>Salama, H., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Autologous+Hematopoietic+Stem+Cell+Transplantation+in+48+Patients+with+End-Stage+Chronic+Liver+Diseases.">Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in 48 Patients with End-Stage Chronic Liver Diseases.</a> Cell Transplantation. 19, 1475-1486 (2017).</li><li>Tan, A. K. Y., Loh, K. M., Ang, L. T. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Evaluating+the+regenerative+potential+and+functionality+of+human+liver+cells+in+mice.">Evaluating the regenerative potential and functionality of human liver cells in mice.</a> Differentiation. 98, 25-34 (2017).</li><li>Loh, K. M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Efficient+Endoderm+Induction+from+Human+Pluripotent+Stem+Cells+by+Logically+Directing+Signals+Controlling+Lineage+Bifurcations.">Efficient Endoderm Induction from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells by Logically Directing Signals Controlling Lineage Bifurcations.</a> Cell Stem Cell. 14, 237-252 (2014).</li><li>Loh, K. M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mapping+the+Pairwise+Choices+Leading+from+Pluripotency+to+Human+Bone,+Heart,+and+Other+Mesoderm+Cell+Types.">Mapping the Pairwise Choices Leading from Pluripotency to Human Bone, Heart, and Other Mesoderm Cell Types.</a> Cell. , 451-467 (2016).</li><li>Zhao, D., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Promotion+of+the+efficient+metabolic+maturation+of+human+pluripotent+stem+cell-derived+hepatocytes+by+correcting+specification+defects.">Promotion of the efficient metabolic maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes by correcting specification defects.</a> Cell Research. 23, 157-161 (2012).</li><li>Si Tayeb, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Highly+efficient+generation+of+human+hepatocyte-like+cells+from+induced+pluripotent+stem+cells.">Highly efficient generation of human hepatocyte-like cells from induced pluripotent stem cells.</a> Hepatology. 51, 297-305 (2010).</li><li>Carpentier, A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Hepatic+differentiation+of+human+pluripotent+stem+cells+in+miniaturized+format+suitable+for+high-throughput+screen.">Hepatic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells in miniaturized format suitable for high-throughput screen.</a> Stem Cell Research. 16, 640-650 (2016).</li><li>Avior, Y., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Microbial-derived+lithocholic+acid+and+vitamin+K2+drive+the+metabolic+maturation+of+pluripotent+stem+cells-derived+and+fetal+hepatocytes.">Microbial-derived lithocholic acid and vitamin K2 drive the metabolic maturation of pluripotent stem cells-derived and fetal hepatocytes.</a> Hepatology. 62, 265-278 (2015).</li><li>Ogawa, S., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Three-dimensional+culture+and+cAMP+signaling+promote+the+maturation+of+human+pluripotent+stem+cell-derived+hepatocytes.">Three-dimensional culture and cAMP signaling promote the maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes.</a> Development. 140, 3285-3296 (2013).</li><li>Rostovskaya, M., Bredenkamp, N., Smith, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Towards+consistent+generation+of+pancreatic+lineage+progenitors+from+human+pluripotent+stem+cells.">Towards consistent generation of pancreatic lineage progenitors from human pluripotent stem cells.</a> Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370, 20140365 (2015).</li><li>Haridass, D., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Repopulation+Efficiencies+of+Adult+Hepatocytes,+Fetal+Liver+Progenitor+Cells,+and+Embryonic+Stem+Cell-Derived+Hepatic+Cells+in+Albumin-Promoter-Enhancer+Urokinase-Type+Plasminogen+Activator+Mice.">Repopulation Efficiencies of Adult Hepatocytes, Fetal Liver Progenitor Cells, and Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Hepatic Cells in Albumin-Promoter-Enhancer Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Mice.</a> The American Journal of Pathology. 175, 1483-1492 (2009).</li></ol>

This method enables the generation of enriched populations of liver bud progenitors, and subsequently hepatocyte-like cells, from hPSCs. The ability to generate enriched populations of human liver cells is important for the practical utilization of such cells. Previous methods to generate hepatocytes from hPSCs yielded impure cell populations containing both liver and non-liver cells that, upon transplantation into rodents, yielded bone and cartilage in addition to liver tissue15. Hence the explic...

The purpose of this protocol is to efficiently differentiate human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into enriched populations of liver bud progenitors and hepatocyte-like cells2. Access to a ready supply of human liver progenitors and hepatocyte-like cells will accelerate efforts to investigate liver function and disease and could enable new cellular transplantation therapies for liver failure3,4,5. This has proven challenging in the past since hPSCs (which include embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells) can differentiate into all the cell-types of the human body; consequently, it has been difficult to exclusively differentiate them into a pure population of a single cell-type, such as liver cells6.
To precisely differentiate hPSCs into liver cells, first it is critical to understand not only how liver cells are specified but also how non-liver cell-types develop. Knowledge of how non-liver cells develop is important to logically suppress the formation of non-liver lineages during differentiation, thereby exclusively guiding hPSCs towards a liver fate2. Second, it is essential to delineate the multiple developmental steps through which hPSCs differentiate towards a liver fate. It is known that hPSCs sequentially differentiate into multiple cell-types known as the primitive streak (APS), definitive endoderm (DE), posterior foregut (PFG) and liver bud progenitors (LB) before forming hepatocyte-like cells (HEP). Earlier work revealed the signals specifying liver fate and the signals that suppressed the formation of alternate non-liver cell-types (including stomach, pancreatic, and intestinal progenitors) at each developmental lineage choice2,7,8.
Collectively, these insights have given rise to a serum-free, monolayer method to differentiate hPSCs towards primitive streak, definitive endoderm, posterior foregut, liver bud progenitors and finally, hepatocyte-like cells2. Overall the method involves the seeding of hPSCs in a monolayer at an appropriate density, preparing six cocktails of differentiation media (containing growth factors and small molecules that regulate various developmental signaling pathways), and sequentially adding these media to induce differentiation over the course of 18 days. During the process, no passaging of cells is needed. Of note, because this method explicitly includes signals that suppress the formation of non-liver cell-types, this differentiation approach1 more efficiently generates liver progenitors and hepatocyte-like cells by comparison to extant differentiation methods2,9,10,11,12. Furthermore, the protocol described in this text enables the faster generation of hepatocytes that ultimately express higher levels of hepatic transcription factors and enzymes than those produced by other protocols9,10,11,12.
The protocol described here has certain advantages over current differentiation protocols. First, it entails monolayer differentiation of hPSCs, which is technically simpler compared to three-dimensional differentiation methods, such as those that rely on embryoid bodies13. Second,&#160;this method exploits a recent advance whereby definitive endoderm cells (an early precursor to liver cells) can be efficiently and rapidly generated within 2 days of hPSC differentiation2,7, thus enabling the subsequent production of hepatocytes with increased purity. Third, in side-by-side comparisons, the hepatocyte-like cells produced by this method2 produce more ALBUMIN&#160;and express higher levels of hepatic transcription factors and enzymes compared to hepatocytes produced in other methods10,11,12.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr >
			<td >&#160;Geltrex</td>
			<td >Thermofisher Scientific</td>
			<td >A1569601</td>
			<td ></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >1:1 DMEM/F12</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>11320033</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >0.2&#160;&#956;m pore membrane filter</td>
			<td>Millipore</td>
			<td>GTTP02500</td>
			<td ></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >mTeSR1</td>
			<td>Stem Cell Technologies</td>
			<td>5850</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Thiazovivin</td>
			<td>Tocris Bioscience</td>
			<td>3845</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >&#160;Accutase</td>
			<td>Gibco or Millipore&#160;</td>
			<td>Gibco A11105, Millipore&#160; SCR005</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >IMDM, GlutaMAX&#8482; Supplement</td>
			<td>Thermofisher Scientific</td>
			<td>31980030</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Ham&#39;s F-12 Nutrient Mix, GlutaMAX&#8482; Supplement</td>
			<td>Thermofisher Scientific</td>
			<td>31765035</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >KOSR, Knockout serum replacement</td>
			<td>Thermofisher Scientific</td>
			<td>10828028</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Poly(vinyl alcohol)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;&#160;</td>
			<td>P8136</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Transferrin&#160;</td>
			<td >Sigma-Aldrich&#160;&#160;</td>
			<td >10652202001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Chemically Defined Lipid Concentrate</td>
			<td>Thermofisher Scientific</td>
			<td >11905031</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >human Activin</td>
			<td >R&#38;D</td>
			<td>338-AC</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >CHIR99201</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>4423</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >PI103</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td >2930/1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >human FGF2</td>
			<td >R&#38;D</td>
			<td>233-FB</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >DM3189</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>6053/10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >A83-01</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>2939/10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Human BMP4</td>
			<td >R&#38;D</td>
			<td>314-BP</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >C59</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>5148</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >TTNPB</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>0761/10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Forskolin</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>1099/10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Oncostatin M</td>
			<td >R&#38;D</td>
			<td>295-OM</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Dexamethasone</td>
			<td >Tocris</td>
			<td>1126</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >Ro4929097</td>
			<td >Selleck Chem</td>
			<td>S1575</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >AA2P</td>
			<td>Cayman chemicals</td>
			<td>16457</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr >
			<td >human recombinant Insulin</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;&#160;</td>
			<td>11061-68-0</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

efficient differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into liver cells

The liver detoxifies harmful substances, secretes vital proteins, and executes key metabolic activities, thus sustaining life. Consequently, liver failure&#8212;which can be caused by chronic alcohol intake, hepatitis, acute poisoning, or other insults&#8212;is a severe condition that can culminate in bleeding, jaundice, coma, and eventually death. However, approaches to treat liver failure, as well as studies of liver function and disease, have been stymied in part by the lack of a plentiful supply of human liver cells. To this end, this protocol details the efficient differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into hepatocyte-like cells, guided by a developmental roadmap that describes how liver fate is specified across six consecutive differentiation steps. By manipulating developmental signaling pathways to promote liver differentiation and to explicitly suppress the formation of unwanted cell fates, this method efficiently generates populations of human liver bud progenitors and hepatocyte-like cells by days 6 and 18 of PSC differentiation, respectively. This is achieved through the temporally-precise control of developmental signaling pathways, exerted by small molecules and growth factors in a serum-free culture medium. Differentiation in this system occurs in monolayers and yields hepatocyte-like cells that express characteristic hepatocyte enzymes and have the ability to engraft a mouse model of chronic liver failure. The ability to efficiently generate large numbers of human liver cells in vitro has ramifications for treatment of liver failure, for drug screening, and for mechanistic studies of liver disease.

After 24 h of APS differentiation, colonies will generally adopt a different morphology than undifferentiated colonies concomitant with a loss of the bright border that typically circumscribes hPSC colonies. Morphologically, primitive streak cells generally have ragged borders and are more spread and less compact than hPSCs-this is evocative of an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition as pluripotent epiblast cells differentiate and ingress into the primitive streak in vivo. If the colony s...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Efficient Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells into Liver Cells at JoVE.com

Efficient Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells into Liver Cells

This protocol details a monolayer, serum-free method to efficiently generate hepatocyte-like cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in 18 days. This entails six steps as hPSCs sequentially differentiate into intermediate cell-types such as the primitive streak, definitive endoderm, posterior foregut and liver bud progenitors before forming hepatocyte-like cells.

The liver detoxifies harmful substances, secretes vital proteins, and executes key metabolic activities, thus sustaining life. Consequently, liver ...

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