Neonatal human hepatocytes immortalized using tert and methods of their use
AssigneeAmerican Type Culture Collection
InventorsJaya Gaddipati, Judith Kantor, Yvonne A. Reid
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Abstract
The present invention relates to the discovery of immortalized neonatal human hepatocytes that exhibit phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells. The invention is also directed to a method of obtaining telomerase-immortalized neonatal human hepatocytes that exhibit phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells. Furthermore, the instant invention describes methods of using the immortalized neonatal human hepatocytes in cellular therapies, toxicological studies, pharmacokinetic studies, metabolic studies, therapeutic gene delivery and for the production of fully differentiated hepatocytes.
Claims45
A population of immortalized human cells that express a human telomerase, wherein the cells exhibit phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells at early passage in vitro and continues to express said phenotypic features at late passage in vitro.
An immortalized human cell that expresses a human telomerase, wherein the cell exhibits phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells at early passage in vitro and continues to express said phenotypic features at late passage in vitro.
A method of obtaining an immortalized human hepatocyte having the phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells, said method comprising the steps of:
- (i) introducing an exogenous nucleic acid molecule encoding a human telomerase into a neonatal human hepatocyte to obtain a transfected neonatal human hepatocyte cell that expresses the exogenous human telomerase;
- and
- (ii) propagating the transfected human hepatocyte cell in vitro,
- to thereby obtain an immortalized neonatal human hepatocyte cell that exhibits phenotypic features of human hepatic progenitor cells at early passage in vitro and continues to express said phenotypic features at late passage in vitro.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.