Stem Cell Res. 2016 Mar 29;16(3):640-650. doi: 10.1016/j.scr.2016.03.009. [Epub ahead of print]

Hepatic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells in miniaturized format suitable for high-throughput screen.

Carpentier A¹, Nimgaonkar I², Chu V², Xia Y², Hu Z², Liang TJ³.

Abstract

The establishment of protocols to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) including embryonic (ESC) and induced pluripotent (iPSC) stem cells into functional hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) creates new opportunities to study liver metabolism, genetic diseases and infection of hepatotropic viruses (hepatitis B and C viruses) in the context of specific genetic background. While supporting efficient differentiation to HLCs, the published protocols are limited in terms of differentiation into fully mature hepatocytes and in a smaller-well format. This limitation handicaps the application of these cells to high-throughput assays. Here we describe a protocol allowing efficient and consistent hepatic differentiation of hPSCs in 384-well plates into functional hepatocyte-like cells, which remain differentiated for more than 3weeks. This protocol affords the unique opportunity to miniaturize the hPSC-based differentiation technology and facilitates screening for molecules in modulating liver differentiation, metabolism, genetic network, and response to infection or other external stimuli.