High throughput micro-well generation of hepatocyte micro-aggregates for tissue engineering.

ABSTRACT: The main challenge in hepatic tissue engineering is the fast dedifferentiation of primary hepatocytes in vitro. One successful approach to maintain hepatocyte phenotype on the longer term is the cultivation of cells as aggregates. This paper demonstrates the use of an agarose micro-well chip for the high throughput generation of hepatocyte aggregates, uniform in size. In our study we observed that aggregation of hepatocytes had a beneficial effect on the expression of certain hepatocyte specific markers. Moreover we observed that the beneficial effect was dependent on the aggregate dimensions, indicating that aggregate parameters should be carefully considered. In a second part of the study, the selected aggregates were immobilized by encapsulation in methacrylamide-modified gelatin. Pheno

SUBMITTER: Gevaert E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4136852 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature