title: [Gene expression and functional profiles related to differentiation of human hepatic progenitor cells].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the genes playing a functional role in differentiation of human hepatic progenitor cells to hepatocytes by comparing the gene expression and functional profiles of the two cell types.
  
  
  METHODS
  mRNA was isolated from human fetal hepatic progenitor cells (hFHPCs) and functional hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) that had differentiated from hFHPCs. Global gene expression profiling was performed on triplicate samples of each cell type. The differential gene expression was analyzed using volcano plot filtering and functional annotation was performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the hFHPCs, the HLCs had a total of 1878 significantly up-regulated genes and 1441 significantly down-regulated genes. The up-regulated genes included functional groups related to the hexose metabolic process, positive regulation of apoptosis, angiogenesis, regulation of cell motion, and protein amino acid phosphorylation. The down-regulated genes included functional groups related to cell cycle, DNA metabolic process, cytoskeleton organization, regulation cell cycle, and chromosome segregation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differentiation of HLCs from hFHPCs may involve increased expression of genes related to hepatocyte function and decreased expression of genes related to cell cycle regulation.
authors.affiliation: School of Basic Medical Science, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ming-Xi
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Hai-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005333:Fetus; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger