Figure 3: Functional and morphological analysis of hepatic cells derived from iPSC. (A) Induction of CYP34A mRNA expression by rifampicin stimulation on day 20 hepatic lineage cells derived from H9 ES and iPS cells. Housekeeping gene (PPIG) normalized CYP3A4 mRNA level of unstimulated cells was used for calculating fold induction. (B) PAS staining for glycogen storage in iPSC-derived hepatocytes (scale bar 10 μm). Liver cancer cell line Huh-7.5.1 is included as a control. (C) Bright field microscopic image shows the polygonal morphology of iPSC-derived hepatocytes with defined tight junctions at day 21 post-differentiation (scale bar 10 μm). (D) Ultra-structural analysis of iPSC-derived hepatocytes (day 15) reveals formation of hepatic features such as tight junctions (TJ; arrows) and biliary canaliculi (BC) between two adjacent cells (scale bar 0.25 μm). The cells were grown as a two-dimensional monolayer culture before processing for an electron microscopy study. (N: nucleus; C: cytoplasm).