Activation of human hepatic stellate cell spheroids for evaluation of liver fibrosis

Abstract

We have reported that human hepatic stellate cells were deactivated by spheroid culture. In this study, we tested culture condition of spheroids to detect activation or deactivation by morphological change. Human hepatic stellate cell line LI90 were cultured on EZSPHERE (AGC) to form spheroids. Acquired spheroids were cultured on the culture plate or low attachment culture plate.

Spheroids on the culture plate showed elongated morphology and activated gene expression pattern. This result indicated that cell morphological change would be able to evaluate stellate cell activation.