title: Interactions of vimentin- or desmin-expressing liver cells with N-acetylglucosamine-bearing polymers.
abstract: It is necessary to develop highly functionalized liver cell culture systems for liver tissue engineering such as bioartificial livers and liver cell chips. To maintain a high level of hepatocyte function, well-organized patterning culture systems of hepatocytes and nonparenchymal cells would be advantageous. To design the patterning culture system using these cells, cell-recognizable polymers should be useful to regulate not only the hepatocytes, but also the nonparenchymal cells. Here, we report that N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc)-bearing polymers are useful as nonparenchymal cell-recognizable polymers. It has previously been reported that mesenchymal cells adhered to GlcNAc-bearing polymer-coated dishes through surface vimentin. It was also observed that nonparenchymal cells expressing vimentin or desmin specifically adhered to GlcNAc-bearing polymer-coated dishes. Especially, in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) cultured on GlcNAc-bearing polymer-coated dishes, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin as an activated HSCs marker was suppressed in long-term. Therefore, HSCs were shown to maintain a quiescent state on PVGlcNAc-coated dishes during a long-term culture. These results demonstrated that GlcNAc-bearing polymers could be beneficial to culture nonparenchymal cells such as HSCs. Our findings suggest that galactose- and GlcNAc-bearing polymers can regulate the culture of all liver cells and may be useful tools for the establishment of liver tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Sun-Jung
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hirohiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ise
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akaike
mesh_terms: D000117:Acetylglucosamine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D003893:Desmin / Q000378:metabolism*; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013499:Surface Properties; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014746:Vimentin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003893:Desmin; D011108:Polymers; D014746:Vimentin; D003094:Collagen; D000117:Acetylglucosamine