iScience (Feb 2024)

Schisandrin B promotes hepatic differentiation from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells

  • Meixian Jin,
  • Xiao Yi,
  • Xiaojuan Zhu,
  • Wei Hu,
  • Simin Wang,
  • Qi Chen,
  • Wanren Yang,
  • Yang Li,
  • Shao Li,
  • Qing Peng,
  • Mingxin Pan,
  • Yi Gao,
  • Shiyuan Xu,
  • Ying Zhang,
  • Shuqin Zhou

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 2
p. 108912

Abstract

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Summary: Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs)-derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) have shown great promise in the treatment of liver diseases. However, most current induction protocols yield hepatocyte-like cells with limited function as compared with primary hepatocytes. Schisandrin B (Sch B) is one of the main components of Schisandra chinensis, which can prevent fibrosis progression and promote liver cell regeneration. Herein, we investigated the effects of Sch B on hepatic differentiation of UC-MSCs. We found that treatment with 10 μM Sch B from the second stage of the differentiation process increased hepatic marker levels and hepatic function. Additionally, RNA-seq analysis revealed that Sch B promoted hepatic differentiation via activating the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. When transplanted HLCs into mice with CCL4-induced liver fibrosis, Sch B-treated HLCs exhibited significant therapeutic effects. This study provides an optimized hepatic differentiation protocol for UC-MSCs based on Sch B, yielding functioning cells for liver disease treatment.

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