Project description:The liver is one of most important organs in our bodies. It performs many essential functions including metabolism, synthesis, secretion, detoxification, and storage. Hepatocytes are the principal cell type in the liver and are involved in multiple liver-specific functions. There have been several efforts to develop in vitro culture systems capable of maintaining hepatocyte-specific phenotype over long time periods. In hepatic tissue engineering, two commonly used culture systems are the collagen sandwich and monolayers of cells. ‚àö√á¬¨‚Ä†In this study, genome-wide gene expression profiles of primary hepatocytes were measured over an 8-day period for each cell culture system using Affymetrix GeneChips and analyzed via Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), which is a powerful method to elicit biologically meaningful information from microarray data at the level of gene sets. Results indicate that the gene expression in hepatocytes in collagen sandwich cultures gradually diverges from that in monolayer cultures. Gene sets up-regulated in collagen sandwich cultures include those associated with liver metabolic and synthetic functions. ‚àö√á¬¨‚Ä†These functions are associated with lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate, and alcohol metabolism and bile acid synthesis. Nuclear receptors are up-regulated in collagen sandwiches 24 hours after seeding. Signals transmitted from these receptors may cause the up-regulation of other processes in subsequent days. Cytochrome-P450 monooxygenase expression was initially down-regulated but exhibited up-regulation after 72 hours. Our results provide a baseline for further explorations into the systems biology of engineered liver mimics as well as 2D and 3D co-cultures of primary hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells. To better understand differences in quality of in vitro growth of rat hepatocytes between culture on a monolayer of collagen gel and sandwiched between two layers of gel, we measured gene expression in hepatocytes in these two culture conditions in triplicate for four time points: 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, and 8 days of culturing. Overall, we obtained Affymetrix microarray data for 24 samples, divided to 12 samples from monolayer and double layer cultures each, each of which are divided into four time points with 3 sample replicates.

Project description:It is well-known that isolation and cultivation of primary hepatocytes causes major gene expression alterations. In the present genome-wide, time resolved study of cultivated human and mouse hepatocytes, we made the observation that expression changes in culture strongly resemble alterations in liver diseases. Hepatocytes of both species were cultivated in collagen sandwich and in monolayer conditions. Genome-wide data were also obtained from human NAFLD, cirrhosis, HCC, and hepatitis B virus infected tissue as well as mouse livers after partial hepatectomy, CCl4 intoxication, obesity, HCC and LPS. A strong similarity between cultivation and disease induced expression alterations was observed. For example, expression changes in hepatocytes induced by one day cultivation and one day CCl4 exposure in vivo correlated with R=0.615 (P<0.001). Interspecies comparison identified predominantly similar responses in human and mouse hepatocytes but also a minority of genes that responded differently. Unsupervised clustering of altered genes identified three main clusters: (1) downregulated genes corresponding to mature liver functions, (2) upregulation of an inflammation/RNA-processing cluster, (3) upregulated migration/cell-cycle associated genes. Gene regulatory network analysis highlights overrepresented and deregulated HNF4 and CAR (cluster 1), KrÃ¼ppel-like factors MafF and ELK1 (cluster 2) as well as ETF (cluster 3) among the interspecies conserved key regulators of expression changes. Interventions ameliorating but by far not abrogating cultivation-induced responses include removal of non-parenchymal cells, generation of the hepatocytesâ own matrix in spheroids, supplementation with bile salts and siRNA mediated suppression of key transcription factors. In conclusion, the study shows that gene regulatory network alterations of cultivated hepatocytes resemble those of inflammatory liver diseases and should therefore be considered and exploited as disease models.

Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cells (iHeps) could provide a powerful tool for studying the mechanisms underlying human liver development and disease, testing the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals across different patients (i.e. personalized medicine), and enabling cell-based therapies in the clinic. However, current in vitro protocols that rely upon growth factors and extracellular matrices (ECM) alone yield iHeps with low levels of liver functions relative to adult primary human hepatocytes (PHHs). Moreover, these low hepatic functions in iHeps are difficult to maintain for prolonged times (weeks to months) in culture. Here, we engineered a micropatterned co-culture (iMPCC) platform in a multi-well format that, in contrast to conventional confluent cultures, significantly enhanced the functional maturation and longevity of iHeps in culture for 4 weeks in vitro when benchmarked against multiple donors of PHHs. In particular, iHeps were micropatterned onto collagen-coated domains of empirically optimized dimensions, surrounded by 3T3-J2 murine embryonic fibroblasts, and then sandwiched with a thin layer of ECM gel (Matrigel™). We assessed iHep maturity via global gene expression profiles, hepatic polarity, secretion of albumin and urea, basal CYP450 activities, phase-II conjugation, drug-mediated CYP450 induction, and drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Conclusion: Controlling both homotypic interactions between iHeps and heterotypic interactions with stromal fibroblasts significantly matures iHep functions and maintains them for several weeks in culture. In the future, iMPCCs could prove useful for drug screening, studying molecular mechanisms underlying iHep differentiation, modeling liver diseases, and integration into human-on-a-chip systems being designed to assess multi-organ responses to compounds. We used Affymetrix microarrays to profile the global gene expression of co-culture stabilized iHeps (iMPCCs) relative to freshly isolated and co-culture stabilized primary human hepatocytes (2 donors).

Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cells (iHeps) could provide a powerful tool for studying the mechanisms underlying human liver development and disease, testing the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals across different patients (i.e. personalized medicine), and enabling cell-based therapies in the clinic. However, current in vitro protocols that rely upon growth factors and extracellular matrices (ECM) alone yield iHeps with low levels of liver functions relative to adult primary human hepatocytes (PHHs). Moreover, these low hepatic functions in iHeps are difficult to maintain for prolonged times (weeks to months) in culture. Here, we engineered a micropatterned co-culture (iMPCC) platform in a multi-well format that, in contrast to conventional confluent cultures, significantly enhanced the functional maturation and longevity of iHeps in culture for 4 weeks in vitro when benchmarked against multiple donors of PHHs. In particular, iHeps were micropatterned onto collagen-coated domains of empirically optimized dimensions, surrounded by 3T3-J2 murine embryonic fibroblasts, and then sandwiched with a thin layer of ECM gel (Matrigel™). We assessed iHep maturity via global gene expression profiles, hepatic polarity, secretion of albumin and urea, basal CYP450 activities, phase-II conjugation, drug-mediated CYP450 induction, and drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Conclusion: Controlling both homotypic interactions between iHeps and heterotypic interactions with stromal fibroblasts significantly matures iHep functions and maintains them for several weeks in culture. In the future, iMPCCs could prove useful for drug screening, studying molecular mechanisms underlying iHep differentiation, modeling liver diseases, and integration into human-on-a-chip systems being designed to assess multi-organ responses to compounds. We used Affymetrix microarrays to profile the global gene expression of co-culture stabilized iHeps (iMPCCs) relative to freshly isolated and co-culture stabilized primary human hepatocytes (2 donors). To assess the transcriptomic stability of iHeps in iMPCCs, RNA was extracted following 9 and 21 days of culture for hybridization to Affymetrix microarrays. The hepatic maturation state of iHeps was assessed by comparing gene expression against microarrays containing data from two primary human hepatocyte donors, both following hepatocyte isolation (day 0) and after stabilization in the micropatterened co-culture platform (day 6 and day 42 MPCCs), as previously described.

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A Comparative Study of Genome Wide Transcriptional Profiles of Primary Hepatocyte in In Vitro Cultures

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