Homo sapiens Transcriptome or Gene expression

Human hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) can be obtained from directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. However, the functional immaturity of HLCs prevents them from practical use. Here, we generated hepatocytes from both human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent cells (hIPSCs) by in vitro directed differentiation respectively. By analysing of their transcriptome on a step-wise time course, we found that transcriptome of hESC and hIPSC have difference in expression of particular sorts of genes. Our study is the first one which jointly studied the in vitro directed hepatocyte differentiation process from both transcriptomic and methylomic aspects to our knowledge. These results can provides a comprehensive understanding about transcriptomic dynamics during differentiation process of human pluripotent cells into hepatocytes, as well as the difference between hESC and hIPSC during differentiation process.