Cell cocultures on coated scaffolds applied to liver models

Abstract

Volumetric cell cultures are widely used as an experimental model to mimic the characteristics and responses of cell in tissues in vivo. Hepatocytes, particularly, are highly specialised cells, their geometrical conformation, and their coculture with no parenquimal cells and vascularised tissue, are essential to their physiology and proper function. Polymeric scaffolds for cell growth have been modified through plasma polymerisation to improve their biological properties. This work presents a Poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) coated scaffold with polypyrrole plasma doped with iodine (Ppy-I). The scaffold where seeded with two different cell lines, hepatocytes (HepG2) with stellate cells (Ito), and hepatocytes (HepG2) with endothelial cells (HUVEC), the data were evaluated against control hepatocytes (HepG2) culture. The morphology of the cells was evaluated by microscopy; to corroborate the cell proliferation on the material, images of the samples with the cells were taking three times per week. Total protein in the supernatant was measured, and showed that in the endothelial coculture increased 25% the protein production and the stellate coculture increased 20% the protein production against the hepatocyte culture. In conclusion, we obtain a Ppy-I surface coculture that optimises the conditions for better liver models.