Recent advances in deriving human endodermal tissues from pluripotent stem cells.

The utilization of directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to generate human tissues is quickly evolving. Here we review recent advances in the derivation and applications of human endodermal tissues, including the esophagus, lung, pancreas, liver, stomach, small intestine, and colon. Improvements in tissue transcriptional and functional maturation, multicellular complexity, and scalability allow better development and disease modeling, large-scale drug and toxicity screening, and potentially cell therapeutic applications.