[Isolation and culture of pig hepatocyte in large scale for the application of bioartificial liver system].
OBJECTIVE
Acute hepatic failure is a serious problem. Its mortality reaches up to 80%. Only liver transplantation has been accepted as a definite treatment for patients with hepatic failure but shortage of donor organs is the main obstacle of this approach. A possible solution to this problem is a bioartificial liver system, perfusion of patients blood to isolated hepatocyte. In this study, we performed the isolation and culture of pig hepatocyte in large scale for the application of bioartificial liver system.


METHODS
Hepatocyte isolation was performed by two-step collagenase method via portal vein perfusion in 10 kg female pigs. After that, we compared the functional differences of the spheroid culture to the monolayer culture of hepatocyte. The viability and the function of hepatocyte were assessed using trypan-blue exclusion test and the measurement of the rate of ureagenesis and ammonia removal.


RESULTS
The average viability and yield of hepatocyte were 86.8 +/- 8.0 % and 7.8 +/- 5.4 X 10(9), respectively. The spheroid culture was superior to the monolayer culture in functional aspect of hepatocyte, and their differences, especially for ammonia removal, were more apparent in parallel with culture time.


CONCLUSIONS
For hepatocyte isolation, we obtained sufficient viability and yield of hepatocyte for clinical usage of bioartificial liver system. The function of hepatocyte seems to be better in the spheroid culture than in the monolayer culture. Further studies are needed for application of bioartificial liver system in clinical setting.
Chung
Yu Jeong
YJ
Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Hyuk Joon
HJ
Koh
Young Taeg
YT
Kim
Sang Beom
SB
Kim
Seong Hoon
SH
Choi
Seok Ho
SH
Yi
Nam Joon
NJ
Chang
Seong Hwan
SH
Yang
Eun Lan
EL
Suh
Kyung Suk
KS
Lee
Yoon Shin
YS
Lee
Kuhn Uk
KU
D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D019164:Liver, Artificial; D013552:Swine