title: The differentiation of human multipotent adult progenitor cells into hepatocyte-like cells induced by coculture with human hepatocyte line L02.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to establish an in vitro method to purify human multipotent adult progenitor cells (hMAPCs) and assess their possible differentiation into hepatocytes by coculture with human hepatocyte line L02.
  
  
  METHODS
  hMAPCs were isolated by magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS) depletion selection using CD45 and GlyA microbeads. After indirect or direct coculture of hMAPCs and human hepatocyte line L02, the expression of albumin (ALB), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), cytokeratin (CK) 18, and CK19 by hMAPCs was detected by immunocytochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With the MACS method, (5-10) × 10(4)/mL hMAPCs could be separated from 1 × 10(6)/mL bone marrow mononuclear cells. The purity of CD45-/GlyA- cells separated from bone marrow adherent cells was more than 98%, as determined by flow cytometry. In the coculture without cell-to-cell contact, hMAPCs expressed high AFP on day 1, and then tapered daily to low expression on day 7; ALB expression reached its peak on day 5, and remained high on day 7; CK18 was initially expressed on day 5 and was higher on day 7; CK19 was negative in all assays. In the coculture with cell-to-cell contact, ALB and CK18 were expressed by most cells while AFP appeared in only a few on day 5.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  hMAPCs were induced to differentiate into mature hepatocyte-like cells by coculture with a hepatocyte cell line, either with or without cell-to-cell contact, but the former seemed more effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Fuzhou General Hospital, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Bao
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materia Medica, School of Pharmacy, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Qiu-Hong
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: De-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Fuzhou General Hospital, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Fuzhou General Hospital, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Huan-Zhang
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Hu
keywords: Cell differentiation; Culture; Hepatocytes; Human multipotent adult progenitor cells; Stem cells