Hepatic Differentiation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in 2D Cultures

To begin, coat each well of a six-well plate with one milliliter of basement membrane matrix and incubate at 37 degrees Celsius for one hour. Remove the coated matrix from the plate and add human-induced pluripotent stem cells prepared in AK02N medium supplemented with 10 micromolar ROCK inhibitor. Incubate the cells at 37 degrees Celsius and 5%carbon dioxide for three days.

After three days, on day zero of the initiating hepatic differentiation, wash the cells once with RPMI 1640 medium. Next, to initiate endoderm differentiation, add RPMI B27 GlutaMAX supplemented with three to six micromolar CHIR 99021 and 100 nanograms per milliliter Activin A into the plate. Incubate the cells at 37 degrees Celsius and 5%carbon dioxide for 24 hours.

On day one, replace the existing medium with RPMI B27 GlutaMAX supplemented with 50 nanograms per milliliter of Activin A.Incubate the cells at 37 degrees Celsius and 5%carbon dioxide for 24 hours. On day two, to induce hepatic progenitor differentiation, replace the existing medium with RPMI B27 GlutaMAX medium supplemented with 1%dimethyl sulfoxide, and continue incubation for up to five days. On day seven, to initiate hepatocyte maturation, switch to hepatocyte maturation medium and incubate for 20 days at 37 degrees Celsius and 5%carbon dioxide.

On day 27, human-induced pluripotent stem cells displayed polygonal cell shapes and rounded nuclei, characteristics of hepatocytes.