In vitro differentiation of mouse ES cells into pancreatic and hepatic cells

Abstract

Abstract In mammalian development, both the pancreas and liver originate from the definitive endoderm. The pancreas develops from dorsal and ventral regions of the foregut, and the liver from the foregut adjacent to the ventral pancreas compartment (1, 2). At present, the lack of available methods for enriching either pancreatic or hepatic progenitor cells from their respective organ in vitro is a major obstacle for the efficient generation of selected, pure populations of derivative cells. Moreover, the progenitor cells of the liver and pancreas are not yet clearly defined. Nestin-positive cells deriving from pancreatic islets, and generated after in vitro culture, are suggested to represent pancreatic progenitor cells (3); and oval cells are regarded as hepatic stem/progenitor cells (4). However, cells residing in the pancreatic (5) and hepatic (6) ductal epithelium and expressing cytokeratin 19 also have been proposed as pancreatic and hepatic stem or progenitor cells in vivo.