Due to their important biomedical applications,
functional human embryonic stem cellderived
hepatocyte-like cells (hESC-HLCs) are an
attractive topic in the field of stem cell differentiation.
Here, we have initially differentiated hESCs into
functional hepatic endoderm (HE) and continued the
differentiation by replating them onto galactosylated
collagen (GC) and collagen matrices. The differentiation
of hESC-HE cells into HLCs on GC substrate
showed significant up-regulation of hepatic-specific
genes such as ALB, HNF4a, CYP3A4, G6P, and
ASGR1. There was more albumin secretion and urea
synthesis, as well as more cytochrome p450 activity,
in differentiated HLCs on GC compared to the
collagen-coated substrate. These results suggested
that GC substrate has the potential to be used for
in vitro maturation of hESC-HLCs.
