Figure 4

3D organoids cultured in Matrigel suspension also allows amplification of liver progenitors, while maintaining a higher level of differentiated functions. (A) The expression of different liver progenitors/mature hepatocyte/proliferation markers was analyzed at the mRNA level by qPCR, in 3D culture of human hepatocytes inside Matrigel drop (3D-D - black bars) or in suspension (3D-S - white bars), after 2–3 passages (t1; close to 40 days after plating) and 2 weeks later (t2). Data were normalized to the expression in Matrigel drop organoids. (N = 3) (B) The expression of some of those markers was validated at the protein level by immunofluorescence (bar graph = 100 μm).