Cited by 119Pluripotent Stem Cells Research3D Printing in Biomedical ResearchTissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Scalable production of tissue-like vascularized liver organoids from human PSCs

Open access
Harrison, Sean P., Siller, Richard, Tanaka, Yoshiaki, Chollet, Maria Eugenia, de la Morena-Barrio, María Eugenia, Xiang, Yangfei, Patterson, Benjamin, Andersen, Elisabeth +28 more·2023·Experimental & Molecular Medicine

Abstract

The lack of physiological parity between 2D cell culture and in vivo culture has led to the development of more organotypic models, such as organoids. Organoid models have been developed for a number of tissues, including the liver. Current organoid protocols are characterized by a reliance on extracellular matrices (ECMs), patterning in 2D culture, costly growth factors and a lack of cellular diversity, structure, and organization. Current hepatic organoid models are generally simplistic and composed of hepatocytes or cholangiocytes, rendering them less physiologically relevant compared to native tissue. We have developed an approach that does not require 2D patterning, is ECM independent, and employs small molecules to mimic embryonic liver development that produces large quantities of liver-like organoids. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and immunofluorescence, we demonstrate a liver-like cellular repertoire, a higher order cellular complexity, presenting with vascular luminal structures, and a population of resident macrophages: Kupffer cells. The organoids exhibit key liver functions, including drug metabolism, serum protein production, urea synthesis and coagulation factor production, with preserved post-translational modifications such as N-glycosylation and functionality. The organoids can be transplanted and maintained long term in mice producing human albumin. The organoids exhibit a complex cellular repertoire reflective of the organ and have de novo vascularization and liver-like function. These characteristics are a prerequisite for many applications from cellular therapy, tissue engineering, drug toxicity assessment, and disease modeling to basic developmental biology.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s12276-023-01074-1

Cites

81 of 81 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Liver organoids express key enzymes including members of the cytochrome P450 family and hepatic transporters, often at lower levels compared to native liver tissue.

    “Studies have confirmed that liver organoids express key enzymes, including members of the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family and hepatic transporters, though often at lower levels compared to native liver tissue14,15.”

    From ​Temporal proteomic profiling of iPSC-derived human liver organoids reveals optimal maturation for drug metabolism and toxicology (2026) · cites this paper as [15]

    The Results sections on hepatic parenchymal cells and liver-like function report CYP2A6 expression and CYP1A2/CYP3A4 activity in the organoids. Our copy does not establish expression of hepatic transporters or show that these enzymes and transporters are generally expressed at lower levels than in native liver tissue; it reports some low-expression zonation markers, but that is not a native-liver comparison. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Proteomics can offer a temporal roadmap of cellular differentiation and functional development in organoids.

    “By profiling protein expression dynamics, proteomics can offer a temporal roadmap of cellular differentiation and functional development in organoids14–17.”

    From ​Temporal proteomic profiling of iPSC-derived human liver organoids reveals optimal maturation for drug metabolism and toxicology (2026) · cites this paper as [15]

    The Results section, “Proteomic analysis of iPSC-derived liver organoids” (page unavailable), uses protein profiles to identify liver-related functions and early developmental features. It compares organoids with primary liver, however, rather than profiling protein expression over time. The paper tracks differentiation across days using other measurements, so it does not establish the claimed temporal roadmap from proteomics. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Unlike most prior studies, which typically analyze snapshots of organoid development at single timepoints, this study employs a longitudinal approach to track dynamic transitions of iHLO populations.

    “Unlike most prior studies, which typically analyze snapshots of organoid development at single timepoints14,15, this study employs a longitudinal approach to track the dynamic transitions of iHLO populations.”
  • The findings align with previous proteomic studies of liver organoids demonstrating their capacity to recapitulate liver-specific phenotypes.

    “The findings from current study align with previous proteomic studies of liver organoids, which have demonstrated their capacity to recapitulate liver-specific phenotypes.”
  • Harrison et al. compared iHLO protein profiles with native liver tissue and highlighted enrichment of detoxification pathways in both systems.

    “Similarly, Harrison et al. compare iHLO protein profiles with native liver tissue and highlighted enrichment of detoxification pathways in both systems, emphasizing the relevance of organoids for metabolically intensive applications15.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [67]Lewis, S. L., Dirksen, S. R., Lewis, S. M., Heitkemper, M. M. L. & Bucher, L. Clinical Companion to Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems. (Elsevier, 2013).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Harrison, S. P., Siller, R., Tanaka, Y., Chollet, M. E., de la Morena-Barrio, M. E., Xiang, Y., Patterson, B., Andersen, E., Bravo-Pérez, C., Kempf, H., Åsrud, K. S., Lunov, O., Dejneka, A., Mowinckel, M.-C., Stavik, B., Sandset, P. M., Melum, E., Baumgarten, S., Bonanini, F., Kurek, D., Mathapati, S., Almaas, R., Sharma, K., Wilson, S. R., Skottvoll, F. S., Boger, I. C., Bogen, I. L., Nyman, T. A., Wu, J. J., Bezrouk, A., Cizkova, D., Corral, J., Mokry, J., Zweigerdt, R., Park, I.-H., & Sullivan, G. J.
Affiliations
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • University of Oslo (NO)
  • Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CA)
  • Yale University (US)
  • Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (DE)
  • Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
  • Mimetas (Netherlands) (NL)
  • Durham University (GB)
  • Centro Regional de Hemodonación (ES)
Corresponding author
Sullivan, Gareth J.
Venue
Experimental & Molecular Medicine
Published
2023-09-01
Volume
55
Issue
9
Pages
2005-2024
ISSN
  • 1226-3613 (ISSN-L)
  • 2092-6413
OpenAlex
W4386318431
Cited by
119
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 41 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3
FWCI
10.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Experimental & Molecular Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Norges Forskningsråd (262613, 247624)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Keywords
liver organoids, vascularized organoids, human pluripotent stem cells, organotypic culture, embryonic liver development, Kupffer cells, drug metabolism, albumin synthesis, transplantation, N-glycosylation, cellular diversity, disease modeling
MeSH terms
Animals, Cells, Cultured, Humans, Liver, Organoids, Hepatocytes, Tissue Engineering, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review