AVS 47th International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Tuesday Sessions
       Session BI+EL-TuA

Paper BI+EL-TuA10
Tissue Formation of Hepatocytes on Micro-Porous Films of Polylactide

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 5:00 pm, Room 202

Session: Cell-Surface Interactions
Presenter: T. Nishikawa, RIKEN, Japan
Authors: T. Nishikawa, RIKEN, Japan
K. Nishikawa, Hokkaido University, Japan
R. Ookura, Hokkaido University, Japan
J. Nishida, Hokkaido University, Japan
S.-I. Nishimura, Hokkaido University, Japan
H. Ookubo, Hokkaido University, Japan
H. Kamachi, Hokkaido University, Japan
M. Matsushita, Hokkaido University, Japan
S. Todo, Hokkaido University, Japan
M. Shimomura, RIKEN, Japan
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Control of interaction between cells and material surfaces has been considered as a fundamental issue in designing and developing bio-materials for various purposes such as cell culture, implantation, and tissue regeneration. Surface morphology is one of the factors which can control the interaction. We previously reported that two-dimensional regular honeycomb pattern appear as a surface morphology of polymer films which were fabricated by casting dilute solution of amphiphilic polymers on solid substrates in a humid atmosphere. Recently we found that the honeycomb morphology can be applied to micro-patterning of cell culture substrates and that rat hepatocytes recognize the micro-patterned surfaces from chemical and morphological aspects and change their morphology and functions. Here we show that self-supported honeycomb films can be fabricated by casting a dilute solution containing polylactide (PLLA) as major component of the films and amphiphilic polymer as component for induction of honeycomb morphology. The honeycomb films worked as cell culture substrates for rat hepatocytes. Hepatocytes on the honeycomb films formed a colony, which exhibited tissue-like structure and express high level of albumin secretion, which was comparable to that of spheroids of hepatocytes. The tissue formation of hepatocytes specifically occurred on the honeycomb films of PLLA, but not on flat films of PLLA. The colony of hepatocytes kept the morphological features and liver specific function at day 14. This indicates that micro-porous films of PLLA would be appropriate for long term culturing of hepatocytes. Recently we succeeded in culturing hepatocytes on both sides of the self-supported honeycomb films of PLLA. In this sense, we believe that our materials possessing regular micro-pores are applicable to artificial extra-cellular matrices for tissue engineering.