U.S.A. scientists have issued standard research guidelines on the maturation of induced pluripotent stem cells

The researchers developed a guide to help the laboratory standardize methods for generating mature hepatoid-like cells (HPCs) from stem cells, and compared the gene expression of HPCs with the actual human liver tissue. This moderately high-throughput protocol allows relatively rapid evaluation of the effectiveness of stem cell differentiation and helps guide optimization of differentiation conditions in regenerative medicine applications. The guidelines and their impact are published in the journal Stem Cells and Development.

Photo source: Stem Cells and Development

The Guide, "Guide to the Assessment of Mature Liver Gene Expression in Stem cell-derived Hepatocytes, "was written by Stephen Strom of the karolinska institute, Alejandro soto-gutierrez of the university of Pittsburgh, and colleagues from the Iranian institute of Stem Cell biology.

Researchers used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (rt-qpcr) to measure mRNA expression of more than 60 genes in fetal and mature human liver samples and normalized them to internal reference.

They measured gene expression in their own lab and in iPCs purchased from commercial LABS. The genes evaluated included genes for liver-specific plasma proteins, cytochrome P450 enzymes, transporters, multidrug resistance proteins, and genes for pluripotency and iPCs' ability to differentiate into different cell types.

Stem Cells and Development magazine editor, from Wayne state university school of medicine in Detroit Michigan Carman and Ann Adams of pediatric Graham c. Parker said: "to be able to guide the Stem cell population to target the mature cell type differentiation ability and demonstrate the persistence and effectiveness of this process is still the most stem-cell biologists can't do things, and even more alarming is the field continue to endure some paper not in evidence. In their landmark paper, Stephen Strom and his colleagues provided a baseline technique for other laboratories to compare their stem cell-derived hepatoid cells with actual human liver samples.

Resources:

Mihaela Zabulica et al， Guide to the Assessment of Mature Liver Gene Expression in Stem Cell-Derived Hepatocytes， Stem Cells and Development (2019). DOI：10.1089/scd.2019.0064