期刊
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ADVANCED MATERIALS
卷 14, 期 6, 页码 -出版社
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1468-6996/14/6/065003
关键词
micropatterning; spheroid; co-culture; cell-cell interactions; primary hepatocyte
Microfabrication and micropatterning techniques in tissue engineering offer great potential for creating and controlling cellular microenvironments including cell-matrix interactions, soluble stimuli and cell-cell interactions. Here, we present a novel approach to generate layered patterning of hepatocyte spheroids on micropatterned non-parenchymal feeder cells using microfabricated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. Micropatterned PEG-hydrogel-treated substrates with two-dimensional arrays of gelatin circular domains (phi = 100 mu m) were prepared by photolithographic method. Only on the critical structure of PEG hydrogel with perfect protein rejection, hepatocytes were co-cultured with non-parenchymal cells to be led to enhanced hepatocyte functions. Then, we investigated the mechanism of the functional enhancement in co-culture with respect to the contributions of soluble factors and direct cell-cell interactions. In particular, to elucidate the influence of soluble factors on hepatocyte function, hepatocyte spheroids underlaid with fibroblasts (NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblasts) or endothelial cells (BAECs: bovine aortic endothelial cells) were compared with physically separated co-culture of hepatocyte monospheroids with NIH3T3 or BAEC using trans-well culture systems. Our results suggested that direct heterotypic cell-to-cell contact and soluble factors, both of these between hepatocytes and fibroblasts, significantly enhanced hepatocyte functions. In contrast, direct heterotypic cell-to-cell contact between hepatocytes and endothelial cells only contributed to enhance hepatocyte functions. This patterning technique can be a useful experimental tool for applications in basic science, drug screening and tissue engineering, as well as in the design of artificial liver devices.
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