The breakthrough in primary human hepatocytes in vitro expansion

As one of the most frequently diagnosed devastating diseases, liver failure is responsible for approximately two million deaths annually worldwide with poor prognosis1. Although liver transplantation has been developed for the most effective treatment for liver failure, it is far from demands for patients due to the shortage of high-quality donor livers and expensive treatment costs. Currently, with the development of cell therapy, cell transplantations including primary human hepatocytes (PHHs), human hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) and liver organoids are emerging as great potential tools to alleviate this growing burden. Much work so far has focused on PHHs, since accumulating evidence indicates that HLCs and organoids have very limited engraftment capability and repopulation efficiency. PHHs’ virtually clinical application, however, has been markedly restricted by its extreme difficulty to culture and expand in vitro2