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Primary hepatocytes derived from liver organs have brought sentimental contribution to fundamental liver biology research and in various pharmaceutical and clinical applications such as drug metabolism and toxicity, and virology. Specifically, human primary hepatocytes are regarded as “Gold Standard” for ADMET evaluation by FDA in drug development. Furthermore, latest advances have demonstrated hepatocytes transplantation as a promising approach for treatment of acute and chronic liver failure. However, the demand for liver organs and functional hepatocytes far exceeds the supply of cadaveric livers and liver tissues from living donors. Hence, generation of functional and expandable hepatocytes is the key to meet these demands.
Great efforts have been made to obtain surrogate human functional hepatocytes, such as derivation of HepaRG cell line and differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESC) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to hepatocyte-like cells. A remarkable advance lately is the direct conversion of fibroblasts to functional hepatocyte-like cells. However, despite the great potential of these new technologies to obtain hepatocyte-like cells, little progresses have been made to push their applications forward to clinics or industries.
For this reason, we would like to propose this symposium to bring academia, industry and clinic together and update the latest achievements about the obtainment and application of hepatocyte-like cells. Our goals include integrating latest technical progresses, bridging the demands from clinic and industry, and leading to solutions of some urgent problems in these areas. We hope that in the near future functional hepatocytes will be used and lead to remarkable advances in various fields, including cell-based therapies, bio-artificial liver devices and mechanistic evaluation of hepatotoxicity and metabolism of new drug candidates.
