Potential of human induced pluripotent stem cells in studies of liver disease.

Liver disease is a leading cause of death in the Western world. However, our insight into the underlying disease mechanisms and the development of novel therapeutic agents has been hindered by limited availability of primary tissue, intraspecies variability associated with the use of animal models, and reduced long-term viability of isolated and diseased liver cells. The emergence of human induced pluripotent stem cells and differentiation protocols to generate hepatocyte-like cells has opened the possibility of addressing these issues. Here, we discuss the recent progress and potential in the production of various cell types constituting the liver and their applications to model liver diseases and test drug toxicity in vitro.FS is supported by an Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship, a joint Sparks-MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship and the Cambridge Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center. CPS is supported by the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation. LV is supported by the ERC starting grant Relieve IMDs, the Cambridge Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center and the EuFp7 grants InnovaLIV and TissuGEN.This is the accepted manuscript. The final published version is available from Wiley at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.27651/abstract