A hybrid co-culture model with endothelial cells designed for the hepatic tissue engineering

The cultured hepatic cells in vitro are prone to losing their characteristic morphologies and biological functions. To avoid this problem, a hybrid co-culture system was proposed to elucidate the effect of cellular communication on the phenotype of hepatic cells. A monolayer of endothelial cells (ECs) was co-cultured on the surface of a three-dimensional (3D) scaffold embedded with HepG2 cells. In this hybrid co-culture system, the growth of encapsulated hepatic cells is barely influenced by the co-cultured ECs. However, the liver-special functions of hepatic cells, including the albumin secretion and the expression levels of hepatocyte-specific genes, are significantly improved. It is deduced that the improved liver-special functions is likely related to the paracrine mechanisms. Hence, this hybrid co-culture model may open a window for the co-cultivation of the multi-type of cells as well as the study of cell-cell signaling interaction.