Engineering functional two- and three-dimensional liver systems in vivo using hepatic tissue sheets
Author: ["Kazuo Ohashi","Takashi Yokoyama","Masayuki Yamato","Hiroyuki Kuge","Hiromichi Kanehiro","Masahiro Tsutsumi","Toshihiro Amanuma","Hiroo Iwata","Joseph Yang","Teruo Okano","Yoshiyuki Nakajima"]
Publication: Nature Medicine
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Abstract
Hepatic tissue engineering using primary hepatocytes has been considered a valuable new therapeutic modality for several classes of liver diseases. Recent progress in the development of clinically feasible liver tissue engineering approaches, however, has been hampered mainly by insufficient cell-to-cell contact of the engrafted hepatocytes. We developed a method to engineer a uniformly continuous sheet of hepatic tissue using isolated primary hepatocytes cultured on temperature-responsive surfaces. Sheets of hepatic tissue transplanted into the subcutaneous space resulted in efficient engraftment to the surrounding cells, with the formation of two-dimensional hepatic tissues that stably persisted for longer than 200 d. The engineered hepatic tissues also showed several characteristics of liver-specific functionality. Additionally, when the hepatic tissue sheets were layered in vivo, three-dimensional miniature liver systems having persistent survivability could be also engineered. This technology for liver tissue engineering is simple, minimally invasive and free of potentially immunogenic biodegradable scaffolds.
Cite this article
Ohashi, K., Yokoyama, T., Yamato, M. et al. Engineering functional two- and three-dimensional liver systems in vivo using hepatic tissue sheets. Nat Med 13, 880–885 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1576
