Identification and Isolation of Clonogenic Cholangiocyte in Mouse.

Cholangiocytes are proliferative and are one of the sources for liver progenitor cells. Clonogenic cholangiocytes are defined as cells capable of clonally proliferating and differentiating cholangiocytes both in vitro and in vivo. In this protocol, we describe the method for isolation of primary cholangiocytes from mouse. To study the heterogeneity of cholangiocytes, we used flow cytometry-based cell sorting to isolate different subsets of cholangiocytes. Organoid-forming efficiencies from sorted single cells are compared within different cholangiocyte populations to identify clonogenic cholangiocytes.