Title: Cell cocultures on coated scaffolds applied to liver models

Authors: Odin Ramírez-Fernández; Rafael Godínez; Esmeralda Zuñiga-Aguilar; Luis E. Gómez-Quiroz; María C. Gutiérrez-Ruiz; Juan Morales; Roberto Olayo

Addresses: Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Física, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México ' Departamento de Física, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Apdo, Postal 55-534, Iztapalapa, México

Abstract: Volumetric cell cultures are widely used as an experimental model to mimic the characteristics and responses of cell in tissues in vivo. Hepatocytes, particularly, are highly specialised cells, their geometrical conformation, and their coculture with no parenquimal cells and vascularised tissue, are essential to their physiology and proper function. Polymeric scaffolds for cell growth have been modified through plasma polymerisation to improve their biological properties. This work presents a Poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) coated scaffold with polypyrrole plasma doped with iodine (Ppy-I). The scaffold where seeded with two different cell lines, hepatocytes (HepG2) with stellate cells (Ito), and hepatocytes (HepG2) with endothelial cells (HUVEC), the data were evaluated against control hepatocytes (HepG2) culture. The morphology of the cells was evaluated by microscopy; to corroborate the cell proliferation on the material, images of the samples with the cells were taking three times per week. Total protein in the supernatant was measured, and showed that in the endothelial coculture increased 25% the protein production and the stellate coculture increased 20% the protein production against the hepatocyte culture. In conclusion, we obtain a Ppy-I surface coculture that optimises the conditions for better liver models.

Keywords: polypyrrole; hepatocytes; hepatic model; cell coculture; biomaterials; coated scaffolds.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2017.086895

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2017 Vol.9 No.4, pp.332 - 350

Received: 03 Nov 2015
Accepted: 25 Nov 2016
Published online: 02 Oct 2017 *

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