The disclosure provides materials and methods useful in forming at least one bile duct or treating cholestatic disease or injury by transdifferentiating hepatocytes to cholangiocytes by delivery of an effective amount of an expressible Transforming Growth Factor β Type I Receptor (TGFBR1), Transforming Growth Factor β Type II Receptor (TGFBR2), SMAD3, SMAD1, SMAD2, SMAD5 or SMAD8/9, in either in vivo or in vitro environments. Another aspect provides a method of forming at least one bile duct or treating a cholestatic disease or injury by delivering an effective amount of JAG1, JAG2, DLL1, DLL3, DLL4, NOTCH1, NOTCH2, NOTCH3, NOTCH4 or the respective NOTCH intracellular domains either in vivo or in vitro. Also provided are methods for correcting mutant alleles of genes in the TGFβ and/or Notch pathways, e.g., JAG1 or NOTCH2, using ZFNs, TALENs, CRISPR or any other genome editing technique. Additionally, methods are provided for inducing increased expression of a normal, or wild-type, allele of a TGFβ or Notch pathway gene such as TGFBR1 or JAG1 using CRISPRa technology. Yet another aspect is drawn to a method of forming at least one bile duct or treating a cholestatic disease or injury by delivering an effective amount of a wild-type hepatocyte or a hepatocyte that has not been engineered to overexpress a gene product.

The invention relates to a liver organoid, uses thereof and method for obtaining them.

A method for inducing conversion from non-hepatic stem cells or non-hepatic progenitor cells into hepatic stem cells or hepatic progenitor cells, which comprises introducing any of the following combinations into the non-hepatic stem cells or non-hepatic progenitor cells: (a) a combination of HNF1, HNF6 and FOXA; (b) a combination of HNF1 gene, HNF6 gene and FOXA gene; (c) a combination of HNF1, MYC and FOXA; or (d) a combination of HNF1 gene, MYC gene and FOXA gene.

Subpopulations of spore-like cells expressing specific cell surface and gene expression markers are provided. In one embodiment, the cells express at least one cell surface or gene expression marker selected from the group consisting of Oct4, nanog, Zfp296, cripto, Gdf3, UtF1, Ecat1, Esg1, Sox2, Pax6, nestin, SCA-1, CD29, CD34, CD90, B1 integrin, cKit, SP-C, CC10, SF1, DAX1, and SCG10. Also provided are methods for purifying a subpopulation of spore-like cells of interest from a population of spore-like cells, and methods for inducing differentiation of the isolated spore-like cells into cells of endodermal, mesodermal or ectodermal origin. The spore-like cells can be used to generate cells originating from all three germ layers and can be used to treat a patient who has a deficiency of functional cells in any of a wide variety of tissues, including the retina, intestine, bladder, kidney, liver, lung, nervous system, or endocrine system.

This invention relates to the efficient generation of cholangiocyte progenitor (CP) cells. Foregut stem cells (FSCs) are cultured in a hepatic induction medium comprising bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and a TGFβ signalling inhibitor to produce a population of hepatoblasts. The hepatoblasts are then cultured in a biliary induction medium comprising fibroblast growth factor (FGF), retinoic acid and a TGFβ ligand to produce a population of cholangiocyte progenitors (CPs). The cholangiocyte progenitors (CPs) may be matured into cholangiocyte-like cells (CLCs) that display functional properties of Common Bile Duct (CBD) cholangiocytes. Methods, kits, cell populations and uses of these cell populations are provided.

The present invention relates to a population of cells comprising hepatic stem-like cells and therapeutic use thereof, for the treatment and the prevention of fulminant liver disorders. The hepatic stem-like cells according to the invention may be safely and reproducibly generated from pluripotent stem cells. In addition, although the hepatic stem-like cells according to the invention do not display the phenotype of physiologically mature hepatic cells, as they are lacking the albumin expression marker (ALB), they may still be transplanted in a diseased liver with acute failure, rescue the diseased liver and promote liver regeneration. Moreover, various protocols of preparation of hepatic stem-like cells according to the invention may be implemented, all resulting in high quality and high yield of production. Finally, the hepatic stem-like cells according to the invention may be cryopreserved and may also be prepared as spheroid particles.

The invention relates to cell-free compositions obtained by culturing adult-derived human liver stem/progenitor cells (ADHLSC) in cell culture medium and isolating the resulting conditioned medium (ADHLSC-CM) that has advantageous properties, such as anti-fibrotic effects. ADHLSC-CM, compositions based on ADHLSC-CM, and other related and derived products, can be used in cell culture processes or as a medicament, more particularly for the treatment of diseases involving organ injury, organ failure, in organ or cell transplantation or the pathological disruption, inflammation, degeneration, and/or proliferation of cells within a tissue or an organ, in particular within liver.

The invention relates to differentiation methods for progenitor cells, e.g. mammalian epithelial stem cells, differentiation media for use in said methods, organoids and cells obtainable by said methods and uses, including therapeutic uses, thereof.

The present invention provides a method for producing hepatic stem/progenitor cells from mammal hepatocytes, comprising bringing a TGF-receptor inhibitor, and optionally a GSK3 inhibitor and/or a ROCK inhibitor into contact with the hepatocytes in vitro.

An objective of the present invention is to provide a liver disease regulatory formulation, which is beneficial to prevent the occurrence and development of a chronic liver disease by remodeling a liver regeneration microenvironment. The liver disease regulatory formulation, comprises a hepatocyte-derived liver progenitor cell or a secretory supernatant of the hepatocyte-derived liver progenitor cell.