Human Hepatocyte Morphology and Functions in a Multibore Fiber Bioreactor

Abstract

The viability and liver specific functions of human hepatocytes in a multibore fiber bioreactor are reported. Human hepatocytes were cultured in the intraluminal compartment of the bioreactor. Human hepatocytes on the membranes maintained their round shape and showed focal adhesions as sites of interaction with the membrane surface. Cells in the bioreactor expressed liver specific functions, including synthetic and detoxification activity up to 14 d of culture. The results demonstrate that human hepatocytes cultured in the multibore fiber bioreactor are able to sustain the same in vivo liver functions in vitro.

Determination of the decay rate constant for hepatocytes immobilized in alginate microcapsules

“…Nevertheless, the main advantage of the performed methodology consist in the dynamic character of the analyses, which avoids traditional problems observed in strategies based in discrete or punctual measurements, such as the delay in the migration of the molecules inside the material matrix or the presence of remaining enzymatic activity in dead cells. Moreover, the good solubility and diffusion of reactants and product molecules (Resazurin and Resorufin, respectively) makes this method not only suitable for the determination of cell viability in bioreactors with immobilized cells but also for using with cells attached on no-light transparent membranes (De Bartolo et al 2007), which is a clear goal with respect to other strategies.…”

Biocatalytic membrane reactors: principles, preparation and biotechnological, pharmaceutical and medical applications

“…The results demonstrated that human hepatocytes cultured in the multibore fi ber bioreactor are able to sustain the same in vivo liver functions in vitro. 68 Other similar studies, conducted on liver cells of different sourceshuman, murine and porcine -all indicate the great feasibility of hollow-fi ber hepatocyte bioreactors, with considerable biological activity maintained for some weeks; 69 , 70 the ability of cells to grow and act on different materials has been tested: 71 biodegradable, natural biomaterial (chitosan) has been demonstrated to be a good candidate for these systems (no toxicity, with great cell viability and activity).…”

Membrane supported scaffold architectures for tissue engineering

“…Electro-spinning process (ESP) is a method to fabricate nonwoven mesh as scaffold to mimic collagen fibrils in natural tissue matrix [43] with fiber size in the nano to micrometer scale [44][45][46][47] with different fiber surface morphology [48]. ESP utilizes an electrostatic field to control the formation and deposition of polymer nanofibers [49][50][51].…”

“…These fibers were selected because they have proven biocompatibility [43] and are expected to deliver efficiently nutrients to the cells via the multiple bores. Approximately 12cm long multibore HF modules were prepared manually by carefully inserting each end into 8mm polyethylene tube and sealed with polyurethane glue such that 2cm fiber surface is exposed for permeation at the middle of the module.…”

“…New techniques are being developed to address this issue by incorporating porous hollow fiber membranes into the scaffold or fiber themselves as the scaffold [39][40][41][42]. In addition to the standard perfusion across the scaffold, additional perfusion occurs via the hollow fiber [40,43,44].…”