Despite decades of investigation on the proliferation of adult human primary hepatocytes, their expansion in vitro still remains challenging. To later be able to consider hepatocytes as a cell therapy alternative or bridge to liver transplantation, dramatically impeded by a shortage in liver donors, the first step is having an almost unlimited source of these cells. The banking of transplantable hepatocytes also implies a protocol for their expansion that can be compatible with large-scale production. We show that adult human primary hepatocytes when grown in 3D organoids are easily amplified, providing a substantial source of functional hepatocytes ready for transplantation. Following their plating, differentiated human hepatocytes are amplified during a transient and reversible step as liver progenitors, and can subsequently be converted back to mature differentiated hepatocytes. The protocol we propose is not only compatible with automated and high-throughput cell culture systems, thanks to the expansion of hepatocytes in suspension, but also guarantees the generation of a high number of functional cells from the same patient sample, with a relatively easy set up.
CITATION STYLE
Garnier, D., Li, R., Delbos, F., Fourrier, A., Collet, C., Guguen-Guillouzo, C., … Nguyen, T. H. (2018). Expansion of human primary hepatocytes in vitro through their amplification as liver progenitors in a 3D organoid system. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26584-1
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