In vitro transdifferentiation of human hepatoma cells into pancreatic-like cells

Transdifferentiation is defined as an irreversible switch in postnatal life of one differentiated cell to another. Transdifferentiation from different cellular origins into pancreatic-like beta-cells is of clinical significance since this approach may offer a potential cure for diabetes. In order to achieve this goal, the liver is considered as a suitable candidate due to its close developmental relationship to the pancreas, its large size and a well-documented regenerative capacity that could provide enough original tissues to initiate the transdifferentiation procedure. In this chapter, we describe a protocol to overexpress Pdx1, a master regulator essential for pancreas development in the cultured human liver cell line, HepG2.