Isolation and Culture of Adult Human Liver Progenitor Cells: In Vitro Differentiation to Hepatocyte-Like Cells

Highly differentiated normal human hepatocytes represent the gold standard cellular model for basic and applied research in liver physiopathology, pharmacology, toxicology, virology, and liver biotherapy. Nowadays, although livers from organ donors or medically required resections represent the current sources of hepatocytes, the possibility to generate hepatocytes from the differentiation of adult and embryonic stem cells represents a promising opportunity. The aim of this chapter is to describe our experience with the isolation from adult human liver and culture of non-parenchymal epithelial cells. Under appropriate conditions, these cells differentiate in vitro in hepatocyte-like cells and therefore appear to behave as liver progenitor cells.