Composition of culture medium is more important than co-culture with hepatic non-parenchymal cells in albumin production activity of primary rat hepatocytes, and the effect was enhanced by hepatocytes spheroid culture in collagen gel

Liver-specific extracellular matrix hydrogel promotes liver-specific functions of hepatocytes in vitro and survival of transplanted hepatocytes in vivo

A solubilized liver-specific extracellular matrix (L-ECM) substratum was obtained by decellularization of porcine liver using Triton X-100 and pepsin treatments. The L-ECM was able to immobilize hepatocyte growth factor at a high efficiency of 87%. L-ECM gelled spontaneously in a physiologically neutral environment. Primary hepatocytes embedded in the L-ECM gel showed a high albumin synthesis activity and ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity even at 3 weeks in culture. In addition, the L-ECM gel-embedded hepatocytes implanted subcutaneously into partial hepatectomized rats showed a high survival rate (18%) and formed a large liver tissue-like structure. Their efficiencies of EROD activity and large liver tissue-like structure formation were about twice those of collagen gel-embedded hepatocytes. Based on these results, we clarified the effectiveness of L-ECM gel as a substrate for hepatocyte culture and transplantation.

Impact of Three-Dimentional Culture Systems on Hepatic Differentiation of Puripotent Stem Cells and Beyond

Generation of functional hepatocytes from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is a vital tool to produce large amounts of human hepatocytes, which hold a great promise for biomedical and regenerative medicine applications. Despite a tremendous progress in developing the differentiation protocols recapitulating the developmental signalling and stages, these resulting hepatocytes from hPSCs yet achieve maturation and functionality comparable to those primary hepatocytes. The absence of 3D milieu in the culture and differentiation of these hepatocytes may account for this, at least partly, thus developing an optimal 3D culture could be a step forward to achieve this aim. Hence, review focuses on current development of 3D culture systems for hepatic differentiation and maturation and the future perspectives of its application.

Solubilized matrix derived from decellularized liver as a growth factor-immobilizable scaffold for hepatocyte culture

Tissue engineering requires growth factors, cells and a scaffold to permit effective tissue regeneration. This study focused on the development of a scaffold for liver tissue engineering, because the liver is a central organ for metabolism. We aimed to develop a scaffold to promote expression of liver-specific functions of hepatocytes, with a focus on immobilizing growth factors onto an organ-specific matrix for liver tissue regeneration. Solubilized extracellular matrix from decellularized liver (L-ECM) was obtained following Triton X-100 treatment and consisted of protein and polysaccharide. L-ECM was found to immobilize hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), even in the presence of albumin, with an efficiency of 75%. Additionally, the immobilized HGF on L-ECM film was stably remained in culture condition for 5 days. Immobilized HGF promoted hepatocyte migration, thus indicating that L-ECM-immobilized HGF maintained its native biological activity. Furthermore, L-ECM stimulated the expression of liver-specific functions, including albumin secretion, urea synthesis and ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity, in primary rat hepatocytes cultured in growth factor-free medium. In summary, L-ECM has the potential to become an effective material in the field of regenerative medicine.

Heparin-conjugated gelatin as a growth factor immobilization scaffold

Tissue engineering requires growth factors, cells and a scaffold to permit effective tissue regeneration. This study aimed to develop a scaffold with a focus on immobilizing growth factors within gelatin. We focused on the extracellular matrix and developed a heparin-conjugated gelatin (Hep-gela). Conjugation was confirmed using the alcian blue assay and X-ray diffraction patterns. The mechanical strength and stability of the Hep-gela gel in protease solution were improved compared with collagen gel. Hep-gela was able to immobilize vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) even in the presence of albumin, with an efficiency of 54.2%. Immobilized VEGF promoted proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Hep-gela-immobilized VEGF maintained its native biological activity. In summary, Hep-gela has the potential to become an effective material in the field of regenerative medicine.

Effect of a hepatocyte growth factor/heparin-immobilized collagen system on albumin synthesis and spheroid formation by hepatocytes

A hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/heparin-immobilized collagen system was used as a synthetic extracellular matrix for hepatocyte culture. The albumin synthesis, nucleus numbers and morphology of the hepatocytes were determined separately to evaluate the hepatocyte number and hepatocyte-specific function under this system. The benefits of the HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen system for hepatocyte culture were confirmed by three types of culture methods in vitro, namely 2D film cultures, 2D gel cultures and 3D gel cultures. In 2D collagen film cultures, hepatocytes exhibited the highest albumin synthesis (1.42 microg/well/day) in HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen films at 7 days of culture. Heparin inhibited hepatocyte adhesion while HGF promoted hepatocyte migration, and spheroid formation was easily detected in HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen films. In 2D collagen gel cultures, albumin synthesis of around 15 microg/well/day was detected and maintained for more than 18 days on HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen gels. Similar findings were obtained in 3D HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen gel cultures, which exhibited albumin synthesis of up to 30 microg/well/day. The albumin synthesis by hepatocytes was two-fold higher in 3D gel cultures compared with 2D gel cultures, and was maintained for over 2 weeks compared with 2D film cultures using the HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen system. Taken together, the HGF/heparin-immobilized collagen system was effective for albumin synthesis by hepatocytes in both 2D film cultures and 3D gel cultures, and therefore shows good potential for tissue engineering use.