Abstract
Human liver development commences during the third to fourth week of gestation. Endodermal cells give rise to hepatic cords representing liver progenitor cells. These progenitor cells are pluripotent because they differentiate along both the hepatocyte lineage (hepatoblasts) and the biliary epithelial cell lineage (ductal plate cells). In addition, ductal plate cells give rise to peri-biliary glands and in some cases to ectopic exocrine pancreatic tissue. Thus, the progenitor cells in the human fetal liver appear to have a broad differentiation potential similar to the putative hepatic stem cells or oval cells in the rat liver, which may develop into hepatocytes, biliary epithelial cells, pancreatic cells, and intestinal cells. Over the last decade, the existence and location of hepatic stem cells has been hotly debated and therefore hepatic development and the pluripotential capacities of liver progenitor cells have generated much interest. This chapter concisely presents the current stage of understanding of human liver development.
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