Self-formation of vascularized hepatic tissue from human adult hepatocyte

Abstract

Background: Recent study has demonstrated the important role of endothelial-mesenchymal interactions in 3-dimensional self-organization of immature progenitor populations with the use of mimicking of organogenesis. Here, we show that the same principle can be applicable to adult mature cells, ie, human adult hepatocytes (hAHs).

Methods: We cultivated hAHs with fluorescence-labeled human mesenchymal cells (hMSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in micro-well culture plates and observed them for 9 days. Fluorescence microscopy imaging analyses were performed to evaluate the internal structures of generated 3-dimensional tissues. Maintenance of in vitro protein production capacity was examined with the use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results: hAHs started to self-organize into 3-dimensional tissue with the use of coculturing with hMSCs and HUVECs. Live imaging analyses showed that endothelial cells started sprouting inside the generated tissues after 2 days of culture. ELISA showed that human albumin production capacity was improved with the use of coculture compared with hAHs-only culture after 9 days.

Conclusions: We demonstrated that 3-dimensional vascularized hepatic tissue could be generated from hAHs by reconstituting endothelial-mesenchymal interactions. Future studies are needed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of vascularized hepatic tissue transplantation, and this may pave a new way to establish a new transplantation modality as an alternative to hepatocyte transplantation.