An artificial liver sinusoid with a microfluidic endothelial-like barrier for primary hepatocyte culture

Philip J. Lee, Paul J. Hung, Luke P. Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Primary hepatocytes represent a physiologically relevant model for drug toxicity screening. Here, we created a biologically inspired artificial liver sinusoid with a microfluidic endothelial-like barrier having mass transport properties similar to the liver acinus. This unit consisted of a cord of hepatocytes (50 x 30 x 500 μm) fed by diffusion of nutrients across the microfluidic endothelial-like barrier from a convective transport vessel (10 nL/min). This configuration sustained rat and human hepatocytes for 7 days without an extracellular matrix (ECM) coating. Experiments with the metabolism mediated liver toxicant diclofenac showed no hepatotoxicity after 4 h and an IC50 of 334 ± 41 μM after 24 h.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1340-1346
Number of pages7
JournalBiotechnology and Bioengineering
Volume97
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2007

Keywords

  • Artificial liver
  • Biomimetic
  • Bioreactor
  • Hepatocyte
  • Microfluidic

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