A method for preparing isolated hepatocytes is disclosed. The method comprises: a) culturing mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a medium comprising hepatic growth factor (HGF) to cause the MSCs to differentiate toward hepatocytes, wherein the MSCs are isolated from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood b) culturing cells from a) in a medium comprising HGF and oncostatin M (OSM) to facilitate the cell differentiation toward hepatocytes and c) culturing cells from b) in a medium comprising OSM to cause the differentiated cells to mature into hepatocytes, and thereby producing the isolated hepatocyte cells.
