PROCESS FOR PREPARING HEPATIC CELLS FROM PROGENITOR CELLS PRESENT IN UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD

摘要

The present invention concerns a process for obtaining cultures of differentiated hepatocytes starting from progenitor cells present in the umbilical cord blood of normal newborns. In particular the invention relates to a process for obtaining a long-term culturing system which allows the in vitro expansion and differentiation of purified hepatic precursors. Pluripotent progenitor cells are purified by immuno-selection, for example with magnetic beads and expanded in vitro starting from mononuclear cells present in umbilical cord blood. The hepatocyte culture obtained with the thus identified system is suitable for cell therapy which replaces diseased hepatocytes with healthy hepatocytes deriving from homologous stem cells. This hepatocyte culture can also be used for the development of bioartificial organs and, in a further embodiment, for the preparation of in vitro systems for the in vitro production of hepatotropic viruses and/or of their components (i.e. the HCV virus).