Expansion of primary human hepatocyte populations by retroviral gene transfer and adenovirus-mediated CRE/LOXP site-specific recombination

Human primary hepatocytes are ideal for bioartificial liver (BAL), however, the shortage of human livers available for hepatocyte isolation severely limits the use of this modality. To resolve this issue, adult human hepatocytes were immortalized with a retrovector containing the genes encoding Simian virus 40 T antigen flanked by a pair of Ioxp recombination target that was subsequently excised by Cre recombinase. Based on the observations, a reversible immortalization system in primary adult human hepatocytes was established.