Co-culture of hepatic stellate cells and hepatic progenitor cells

Following liver damage, ductular reaction and liver fibrosis often develop simultaneously. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are the main cell type in liver fibrosis development, while proliferation of hepatic progenitor cells is seen in ductular reaction. This study aims to gain insight on the interaction between these two cell types by an in vitro 3D co-culture system. HSCs were isolated from healthy wild-type mice in order to obtain quiescent HSCs. Intrahepatic cholangiocyte organoids (ICOs) with a fluorescent tag (dTomato) were used as progenitor cells. Both cell types were cultured in Matrigel (3D), either separately (3D mono-culture) or together (3D co-culture) and cells were sorted after seven days. Gene expression in each cell type was analyzed using bulk RNA sequencing.