Various extracellular matrix components were employed as coating materials to promote hepatic differentiation from ADSCs. However, no consensus was achieved about the optimal coating matrix due to the lack of direct comparison among different coating matrix. In this study, several coating extracellular matrixs were used for hepatic differentiation of ADSCs and direct comparison between them was performed. We demonstrated that liver DCM as coating matrix could significantly enhance the hepatic differentiation from ADSCs compared with collagen, fibronectin and Matrigel both in the presence and absence of GFs, including enhanced hepatocyte-specific genes expression, hepatocyte related protein secretion with improved liver functions. And the differentiated cells also exhibited the characteristics of mature hepatocytes. In conclusion, the study proved an effective hepatic-inducing method and indicated that DCM could promote the differentiation of ADSCs into hepatocyte-like cells, which demonstrates feasibility of liver DCM as a bio-scaffold for liver regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.