Tissue-like self assemblance of hepatocytes in vitro by manipulation of collagen

BIOT 455

Qin Meng, mengq@zju.edu.cn1, Jing Dai, lab@zju.edu.cn1, and Guoliang Zhang, guoliangz@zjut.edu.cn2. (1) College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou, 310027, China, (2) Institute of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, China
Hepatocyte spheroids or cuboids, possessing high liver-specific functions and tissue-like structure, are desirable for construction of a bioartificial liver. Previously, many extracellular matrixes have been verified to enhance spheroid formation. However, collagen, the most extensively used extracellular matrix in dispersed hepatocye culture including monolayer culture and gel entrapment culture, has never been reported to promote tissue-like assemblance in vitro. Our current work showed that hepatocytes could form either spheroids or cuboids in presence of collagen with a specific concentration within hollow fibers. To illustrate the possible mechanis on the interaction between collagen and hepatocytes, the tissue-like assemblance of hepatocytes were firstly investigated on by varying both collagen concentration, hepatocyte density and the configuration of the hollow fibers. The morphologies of formed spheroids and cuboids were assayed together with liver-specific functions. The expression of specific genes by RT-PCR was further conducted to interpret the manipulation of collagen on self assemblance.
 

Upstream Processing: Advances in Tissue Engineering
8:00 AM-11:00 AM, Thursday, August 23, 2007 BCEC -- 107C, Oral

Division of Biochemical Technology

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007