In vitro proliferation and long-term preservation of functional primary rat hepatocytes in cell fibers.

ABSTRACT: Primary hepatocytes are essential cellular resources for drug screening and medical transplantation. While culture systems have already succeeded in reconstituting the biomimetic microenvironment of primary hepatocytes, acquiring additional capabilities to handle them easily as well as to expand them remains unmet needs. This paper describes a culture system for primary rat hepatocytes, based on cell fiber technology, that brings scalability and handleability. Cell fibers are cell-laden core-shell hydrogel microfibers; in the core regions, cells are embedded in extracellular matrix proteins, cultured three-dimensionally, and exposed to soluble growth factors in the culture medium via the hydrogel shells. By encapsulating primary rat hepatocytes within cell fibers, we first demonstrated the

SUBMITTER: Mazari-Arrighi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9133069 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature