Abstract
The demand for donated livers for transplantation far exceeds the supply. One potential way to relieve this shortage is by developing bioartificial and secondary livers. These innovative approaches will require a large number of high-quality hepatocytes. Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells are likely to be the best source to serve this requirement. This review describes recent progress with mice ES cells which, when placed in a three-dimensional culture system within an environment of liver regeneration, can form hepatocyte-like cells and hepatic lobule-like aggregates. The combination of ES cells and culture systems imitating in vivo environments has the potential to induce high-quality hepatocytes and to develop into liver systems that can compensate for the insufficient supply of donor organs.