Liver canaliculi assays

4DCELL DEVICE

Micropatterns

READ-OUTS

Observation/quantification of biliary canaliculi

STANDARD CULTURE LIMITATION

The process of differentiation of HepaRG™ into hepatocytes is long, as it takes approximately two weeks to reach the necessary confluency of cells. In addition to this, as the cells are randomly organized, bile caniculae formation between cells is difficult to visualize and quantify.

LIVER CANALICULI ASSAYS

Cells are cultured in adhesive patterned substrates, having optimal sizes and shapes which leads to the organized formation of biliary caniculae between cells. This enables their easy observation/quantification.

EXAMPLE

Organization of HepaRG cells after two days of culture (a) in line micropatterns. Observation of bile caniculae (bright) formed in between hepatocytes differentiated from HepaRG (b). 

REFERENCES

Mercey, E., et al. (2010). Biomaterials, 31(12), 3156–3165.