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Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Hepatocyte-like Cells for Drug Discovery
Published on: May 19, 2018
Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocyte platform in modeling of SARS-CoV-2 infection
Ruiqi Zhang1, Rui Wei1,2,3, Yangyang Yuan1,3
1Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR China.
Background And Aim:
Currently, SARS-CoV-2 is still spreading rapidly and globally. A large proportion of patients with COVID-19 developed liver injuries. The human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived hepatocytes recapitulate primary human hepatocytes and have been widely used in studies of liver diseases.
Methods:
To explore the susceptibility of hepatocytes to SARS-CoV-2, we differentiated iPSCs to functional hepatocytes and tried infecting them with different MOI (1, 0.1, 0.01) of SARS-CoV-2.
Results:
The iPSC-derived hepatocytes are highly susceptible to virus infection, even at 0.01 MOI. Other than the ancestral strain, iHeps also support the replication of SARS-CoV-2 variants including alpha, beta, theta, and delta. More interestingly, the ACE2 expression significantly upregulated after infection, suggesting a vicious cycle between virus infection and liver injury.
Conclusions:
The iPSC-derived hepatocytes can support the replication of SARS-CoV-2, and this platform could be used to investigate the SARS-CoV-2 hepatotropism and hepatic pathogenic mechanisms.
