title: Current strategies to generate mature human induced pluripotent stem cells derived cholangiocytes and future applications.
abstract: Stem cell research has significantly evolved over the last few years, allowing the differentiation of pluripotent cells into almost any kind of lineage possible. Studies that focus on the liver have considerably taken a leap into this novel technology, and hepatocyte-like cells are being generated that are close to resembling actual hepatocytes both genotypically and phenotypically. The potential of this extends from disease models to bioengineering, and even also innovative therapies for end-stage liver disease. Nonetheless, too few attention has been given to the non-parenchymal cells which are also fundamental for normal liver function. This includes cholangiocytes, the cells of the biliary epithelium, without whose role in bile modification and metabolism would impair hepatocyte survival. Such can be observed in diseases that target them, so called cholangiopathies, for which there is much yet to study so as to improve therapeutical options. Protocols that describe the induction of human induced pluripotent stem cells into cholangiocytes are scarce, although progress is being achieved in this area as well. In order to give the current view on this emerging research field, and in hopes to motivate further advances, we present here a review on the known differentiation strategies with sight into future applications.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pathology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA.|b PECEM, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Mexico City , México.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cervantes-Alvarez
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pathology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA.|c Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery , Peking University People's Hospital , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pathology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Collin de l'Hortet
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pathology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guzman-Lepe
authors.affiliation: c Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery , Peking University People's Hospital , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Jiye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pathology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takeishi
mesh_terms: D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000166:cytology*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: Cholangiocyte; cholangiopathy modeling; induced pluriotent stem cells