Patent ID: 7282366

Claim:
A method for obtaining hepatocyte lineage cells, comprising culturing primate pluripotent stem; pPS; cells in a growth environment that comprises butyrate or an analog of butyrate and also comprises one or more hepatocyte maturation factors that are either: a) an organic solvent selected from dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylacetamide (DMA); hexmethylene bisacetamide, and other polymethylene bisacetamides; or b) a cytokine or hormone selected from glucocorticoids, epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin, TGF-α, TGF-β, fibroblast growth factor (FGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), IL-1, IL-6, IGF-I, IGF-II, and HBGF-1.