A two-step de-differentiation and maturation of primary human hepatocytes in vitro with efficient metabolic and regenerative capacities

Hepatocytes hold significant promise for applications in drug screening, disease modeling, and clinical cell transplantation. Generating large amouts of hepatocyte in vitro for those application is still challenging. We have previously established a 5C medium for long-term culture and functional maintanace human primary hepatocytes (PHHs) in vitro. However, 5C condtion could not support hepatocyte expansion, which limited its application. In this study, we established a new hepatocyte expansion medium (NHEM) for efficient hepatocyte expansion, which turned the PHHs into hepatic progenitor-like cells (HPLCs). We also generated an optimized 6C condtion for HPLCs maturation. Overall, this study provide a new strategy to generate large amounts of hepatocytes in vitro.