Hepatic Stem Cells and Hepatoblasts: Identification, Isolation, and Ex Vivo Maintenance

The stem cell niche of human livers: Symmetry between development and regeneration

“…Strategies for identifying, isolating and managing the various lineage stages of parenchyma are given in a recent review. 41 This working model also has bearing on interpretation of liver regeneration in response to specific diseases. Massive liver necrosis is shown to involve expansion of progenitors with an antigenic profile equivalent to hHpSCs and minimal response from hHBs, perhaps indicative of quite rapid or of relatively complete maturation of hHBs directly to hepatocytes during an acute, that is, comparatively short injury/recovery process.…”

Cryopreservation protocol for human biliary tree stem/progenitors, hepatic and pancreatic precursors

“…Tissue specimens were processed as previously described 1, 5, 6, 28–30 . In brief, tissues were digested in GMP like Serum-free Dendritic Cell Medium (CellGro # 20801–0500) supplemented with 0.1% Albunorm 20% (Octapharma # 5400454), 1 nM selenium, 300 U/ml Collagenase NB1 GMP like (Serva #17452.01), 100 U/ml Pulmozyme (Roche #18450.02), at 37° C with frequent agitation for 30–45 min.…”

Tissue Engineering

“…These hepatic stem cells (HpSC) were enriched from cadaveric fetal, neonatal, or fully mature donors by selection with a monoclonal antibody to the surface marker CD326 (epithelial cell adhesion molecular, EpCAM), which constitute roughly 1 percent of cells in suspensions prepared from young or old postnatal livers. They can be maintained for more than 40 population doublings, corresponding to a potential expansion of one trillion-fold (1 x 10 12 ), with a doubling time of 36 to 40 hours, in a defined serum-free culture medium containing insulin and transferrin, but lacking classical growth factors [488,489]. If cultured as adherent cells on tissue culture plastic, the HpSC grow in cooperation with immature mesenchymal cells (e.g., angioblasts) that may provide elements of their normal stem cell niche [487,490,491].…”