Fig. 1
Conversion of MEF into hepatic-like cells. a Phase contrast photographs of mock-infected mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), an epithelial colony (7 days after infection; Colony), and early-stage hepatic progenitor-like (iHepL) cells. b Expression levels of Alb, Foxa1, Foxa2 endo , Tat, Slc10a1 (Ntcp), and Cyp7a1 mRNA in pooled MEF at 14 days post-infection grown under the indicated conditions. Mock-infected MEF grown in DMEMc were used as negative control. OSKM: Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, Myc; OSK: Oct4, Sox2, Klf4. Data are represented as mean ± SD (n = 3). c Expression levels of Nanog and Lin28 mRNA as described in (b). MEF infected with OSKM (iPSC) were used as a positive control. d Timeline showing the improved experimental procedure for direct induction of hepatic-like cells. e Growth curve of iHepL cells at day 21. Exponential growth accurately described the data (R2 above 0.99). The population-averaged doubling time (Dt) was calculated from these fits. Data are represented as mean ± SD (n = 3). f Representative fluorescence images of HepG2 and iHepL cells immunostained for proliferative markers phospho-Histone H3 (pH3), Ki67, and Myc. Nuclei were stained with DAPI