Liver sinusoid on a chip: Long-term layered co-culture of primary rat hepatocytes and endothelial cells in microfluidic platforms.

We describe the generation of microfluidic platforms for the co-culture of primary hepatocytes and endothelial cells; these platforms mimic the architecture of a liver sinusoid. This paper describes a progressional study of creating such a liver sinusoid on a chip system. Primary rat hepatocytes (PRHs) were co-cultured with primary or established endothelial cells in layers in single and dual microchannel configurations with or without continuous perfusion.

Microfluidic platform for hepatitis B viral replication study.

Hepatocytes, the cells responsible for the metabolic and detoxification processes in the liver, are the predominant target of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, a major cause of liver cancer. The limited availability of normal human hepatocytes for cell-culture based studies is a significant challenge in HBV-associated liver cancer research. Therefore, there is a need for miniaturized cell-culture systems that can serve as a platform for studying the effect of HBV infections on hepatocyte physiology.

Micropatterns of Matrigel for three-dimensional epithelial cultures.

Three-dimensional (3D) epithelial culture models are widely used to promote a physiologically relevant microenvironment for the study of normal and aberrant epithelial organization. Despite the increased use of these models, their potential as a cell-based screening tool for therapeutics has been hindered by the lack of existing platforms for large-scale 3D cellular studies. Current 3D standard culture does not allow for single spheroid or 'acinus' analysis required for high-throughput systems.