Fine Tuning of Hepatocyte Differentiation from Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Growth Factor vs. Small Molecule-Based Approaches

Figure 5

Hepatocyte differentiation of CHIR-derived DE cells (). (a) DE cells derived from H9 cells treated with CHIR for in DE media followed by 4 days in CHIR-withdrawn DE media ( CHIR ()) were cultured in hepatic progenitor media without HGF added for 7 days and then cultured in Touboul’s maturation media for another 7 days. The cells were fixed on day 13 and day 20 of differentiation and photographed for phase images. The cells were then stained and imaged by a fluorescence microscope using antibodies against AFP, HNF4α, and ALB. DAPI represents nuclear staining. . (b) The cells as explained in (a) were analyzed for mRNA expression by RT-qPCR for the indicated genes using gene-specific primers. The bars represent normalized (18S rRNA) fold mRNA expression. The data are represented as .

(a)

(b)