Generation of Transplantable Three-Dimensional Hepatic-Patch to Improve the Functionality of Hepatic Cells in Vitro and in Vivo Publisher Pubmed



Nobakht Lahrood F¹ ; Saheli M² ; Farzaneh Z¹ ; Taheri P¹ ; Dorraj M¹ ; Baharvand H^{1, 3} ; Vosough M^{1, 4} ; Piryaei A^{5, 6} Show Affiliations
Source: Stem Cells and Development Published:2020

Abstract

Cell therapy and tissue engineering (TE) are considered alternative therapeutic approaches to organ transplantation. Since cell therapy approaches achieved little success for liver failure treatment, liver TE is considered a more promising alternative. In this study, we produced a liver tissue equivalent (called liver-derived extracellular matrix scaffold [LEMS]-Patch) by co-culture of human bone marrow stromal cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and a hepatoma cell line, Huh7, within an artificial three-dimensional liver-extracellular matrix scaffold. The results showed significant increase in the liver-specific gene expression and hepatic functions, in terms of albumin (ALB) and fibrinogen secretion, urea production, and cytochrome inducibility in the LEMS-Patch compared to controls. In addition, transplanted LEMS-Patch was successfully incorporated into the recipient liver of acute liver failure mice and produced human ALB. Consequently, our data demonstrated that the generated LEMS-Patch could be used as a good platform for functional improvement of hepatic cells in vitro and in vivo. © Copyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2020.