Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2020, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (25): 4039-4045.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.2082

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Stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation: measurement of related indicators and detection methods 

Yang Jiayi1, 2, Zhang Guanghao1, 2, Zhang Cheng1, 2, Li Ke1, 2, Huo Xiaolin1, 2, Wu Changzhe1, 2, 3   

  1. 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetics, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong Province, China

  • Received:2019-10-21 Revised:2019-10-24 Accepted:2019-12-19 Online:2020-09-08 Published:2020-08-26
  • Contact: Wu Changzhe, Master, Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetics, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong Province, China
  • About author:Yang Jiayi, Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetics, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Supported by:

    the National Key Research & Development Program of China, No. 2018YFC1106400 and 2018YFA0108200; the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 61671428 ; the Research Team Project of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, No. 2014A030312013

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Stem cells have wide application prospects in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, cell therapy and drug research. In recent years, the applied research, such as bioartificial liver, requires large-scale and high-quality stem cells by expansion, and final obtains hepatocytes (hepatocyte-like cells) by directional differentiation. Through this way, how to efficiently obtain the differentiated cells, with excellent consistency, powerful function and uniform expression of markers, are the key problems to be solved.

OBJECTIVE: To review the detection indicators and detection methods related to the process of stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation, summarize the indicators and methods that have been applied to online detection, discuss the limitations of some indicators and methods applied to online detection, and prospect the indicators and detection technologies expected to be applied to online detection in the future.

METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier and CNKI databases were retrieved for the articles concerning stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation published from 1990 to 2019. The literature related to stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation was collected. The keywords were “stem cells; expansion; hepatic differentiation; monitoring; real-time online” in English and Chinese, respectively. A total of 93 articles were searched, and finally 53 eligible articles were selected and reviewed.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There are many detection indicators and detection methods for stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation. Among them, the detection indicators of the expansion process are mainly related to the maintenance of pluripotency, metabolic activity, survival rate, and cancer transformation trend of stem cells. The process of hepatic differentiation varies with cell types, in which, the pluripotent stem cells and the mesodermal lineage adult pluripotent stem cells should differentiate into the endoderm-oriented cells and then the mature hepatocytes (hepatocyte-like cells), while the endodermal lineage adult pluripotent stem cells mainly composed of hepatic stem/progenitor cells can directly differentiate into mature hepatocytes (hepatocyte-like cells). The specific markers, survival rate and metabolic activity of cells in different stages of differentiation are the focus of detection. At present, although the detection methods based on large-scale biochemical detection and analysis equipment have high reliability, they face the problems of poor real-time performance, high cost and difficulties in integration and miniaturization. Future concerns are focused on the screening of key detection indicators, quantification of detection criteria and realization of automatic online detection during stem cell expansion and hepatic differentiation.

Key words:

bioartificial liver,  stem cells,  hepatocytes (hepatocyte-like cells),  cell expansion,  cell differentiation,  real-time online

CLC Number: