Beschreibung:
<jats:p>The aim of the study was to determine the degree of differentiation of hepatocyte‐like cells derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) by comparing global gene expression patterns of differentiated and undiffentiated hMSC from bone marrow (hBM‐MSC), adult liver and fetal hepatocytes.</jats:p><jats:p>hMSC were isolated from bone marrow and differentiated into hepatocyte‐like cells. Microarray analysis was performed using the HG‐U133A array from Affymetrix. For comparative analysis of expression patterns published datasets and results obtained from this study were combined. All datasets were analysed by Microarray Suite 5.0 and Genesis software.</jats:p><jats:p>In comparison to undifferentiated hBM‐MSC, hepatocyte differentiated hBM‐MSC showed a dramatic change of the gene expression profile. We found approximately 1000 genes upregulated and 1400 genes were downregulated in differentiated MSC with a fold change ≥3. Among these, around 60% and 40% showed similar expression levels as in adult liver, respectively. Expression of glutamine synthetase and ribonuclease 4 is significantly upregulated in hepatocyte differentiated MSC, typical for adult hepatocytes in the perivenous area of the liver lobule. Thus, hepatocyte‐like cells derived from hBM‐MSC feature human hepatocyte gene expression patterns, which encourages to step forward to use hBM‐MSC as a novel source for cell therapy of liver diseases.</jats:p>