Cell Aggregation Culture Induces Functional Differentiation of Induced Hepatocyte-like Cells through Activation of Hippo Signaling (Cell Reports)

Yamamoto et al. show that cell-aggregate formation induces functional differentiation of hepatocyte-like cells, designated iHep cells, which are directly induced from mouse fibroblasts. Hepatic maturation of iHep cells is regulated by activation of Hippo signaling that leads to upregulation of Hnf1? expression for induction of liver-enriched gene expression.