Description:

Jessica Brown, PhD

A major challenge of maintaining primary hepatocytes in vitro is progressive loss of hepatocyte-specific functions, such as protein synthesis and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) catalytic activity. We developed a three-dimensional (3D) nanofibrous scaffold made from poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) polymer using a newly optimized wet electrospinning technique that resulted in a highly porous structure that accommodated inclusion of primary human hepatocytes. We found that incorporation of ECM components, especially type I collagen, into the PLGA scaffold led to an increase in function of primary human hepatocytes compared to the same cells grown within unmodified PLGA scaffolds.