Basic research for the production of human hepatocytes and the transplantation of hepatic tissues

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We aimed to develop the methods of producing a large number of small hepatocytes(SHs), hepatic progenitor cells, and to establish the methods of hepatic organoid formation in vitro. In addition, we examined how cells and tissues could be transplanted into liver. Unlike mature hepatocytes the growth of rat SHs was regulated by Follistatin/Activin system. Although oval cells, hepatic stem cells, differentiated into hepatocytes via SHs, they could not completely mature. The transplanted hepatic stem/progenitor cells could not survive for a long term in the recipient liver and disappeared by cellular senescence. Thus, the role of hepatic stem/progenitor cells in severe liver failure may be to compensate for the lost hepatic functions transiently. To use the model of hepatic sinusoids constituting rat SHs, stellate cells, and endothelial cells, we clarified that quiescent stellate cells might regulate the capillary formation of endothelial cells and maturation of SHs.