Hepatic Differentiation from Murine and Human iPS Cells Using Nanofiber Scaffolds.

The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells of murine and human are capable to differentiate into any cell type of the body through recapitulating normal development, similarly as the embryonic stem (ES) cells. Lines of evidence support that both ES cells and iPS cells are induced to differentiate in vitro by sequential treatment of humoral cues such as growth factors and chemicals, combined with the use of certain microenvironments including extracellular matrices and scaffolds.Here, we describe the procedure to potentiate hepatic lineage cells differentiation from murine and human iPS cells, using growth factor cocktails and nanofiber scaffolds. Nanofiber scaffolds have a three-dimensional surface mimicking the fine structures of the basement membrane in vivo, allow the iPS cells to differentiate into the definitive endoderm and mature hepatocyte-like cells more efficiently than the two-dimensional conventional culture plates.