Comparative analysis of gene expression in rat liver tissue and monolayer- and spheroid-cultured hepatocytes

A culture system with spherical multicellular aggregates (spheroids), which are formed by the rearrangement and compaction of cell aggregates, is reported to be more useful than the traditional monolayer culture system for the culture of primary hepatocytes. By performing real-time polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed the expression of genes encoding key molecules involved in liver-specific functions, namely, cell adhesion molecules (integrin 3, cadherin 1 and connexin 32), transcription factors (hepatic nuclear factor 4alpha and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta), protein and metabolic enzymes (albumin, glucose-6-phosphatase, tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase, arginase 1 and cytochrome P450 7A1) and transporters (organic anion transporting peptide 1, multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 and bile salt export pump), in spheroids derived from rat hepatocytes. Further, we compared these expression levels with those in a hepatocyte monolayer and in liver tissue. Only the gene encoding glucose-6-phosphatase (required for sugar metabolism) was expressed at a similar level in both the monolayer culture and liver tissue for 10 days of culture; the expression of all the other genes in the monolayer culture either rapidly decreased or completely disappeared as the culture duration increased. Although the expression levels of all the genes in the spheroids tended to decrease gradually with culture time, they were consistently higher than those in the monolayer culture for at least 10 days of culture. These results suggest that hepatocyte spheroids acquire intercellular organization and largely maintain many intercellular metabolic functions. Thus, the hepatocyte spheroid culture system seems to be promising for various in vitro cell-based assays.