Host: The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan
Hepatocyte transplantation using porous scaffolds is a potential therapy for both acute and chronic hepatic insufficiency and also for treatment of inborn errors of metabolism affecting liver. However, some authors reported that the hepatocytes located in the center of the scaffold died after transplantation due to insufficient oxygenation to the cells. No reports have been sufficiently addressed to resolve this problem. In this study, we fabricated a scaffold from poly (lacide acid) (PLA) coated with acidic gelatin. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) adsorbed onto the gelatin, would be released continuously and could induce angiogenesis in the scaffold in vivo. A combination of thickness and cell density in the scaffold was optimized so as to suppress the hepatocytes death in the center of the scaffold in the first stage of implantation. Further, a new centrifugal cell seeding method was developed to immobilize hepatocytes uniformly within the scaffold. The hepatocytes immobilized by the centrifugal cell seeding method in the bFGF-containing scaffold at the cell density optimized were implanted into mesentery of rat received a 70% hepatectomy. From observation of histological section of the scaffold after one week of implantation, it was confirmed that the living hepatocytes were uniformly distributed throughout the section, and exhibited PAS-positive indicating that they had a potential to store glycogen. This result indicates that the technique developed in this study was available for hepatocyte transplantation using a scaffold.
