A new three-dimensional culture system for hepatocytes using reticulated polyurethane

✍ Scribed by Yasuo Sato; Takahiro Ochiya; Yuko Yasuda; Kenichi Matsubara

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 645 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840190430

✦ Synopsis

Poly-N-para-vinylbenzyl-lactonamide (PVLAbcoated reticulated polyurethane (PVLA-RPU) has been employed for the long-term maintenance of primary rat hepatocyte cultures. After 3 days of incubation of 2 x lo7 hepatocytes/cmg embedded in PVLA-RPU discs and kept i n culture medium, most cells showed typical hepatocyte morphology, with some bile canaliculus-like intercellular spaces among the hepatocytes on examination with scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The cells were attached to the surface of the PVLA-RPU and formed multicellular spheroids in the reticulated pores. The hepatocytes maintained various liver-specific functions such as albumin secretion, ammonium metabolism, urea synthesis and gluconeogenesis, and they were viable. The liverspecific functions could be maintained for more than 1 month when the cells were kept in the rats' peritoneal cavities. This new system may be useful aa a bioreactor for an artificial liver.