Thesis
Culturing of primary hapatocytes and HepG2 cells on 3-D glass matrices
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2012
- Thesis identifier
- T13206
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Understanding and predicting drug metabolism is crucial for evaluating the safety and efficacy of new candidate pharmaceuticals. Although animal experiments and human clinical trials are undoubtedly necessary, these are expensive and ethically controversial. The liver is the predominant centre for drug metabolism in the body, and hepatocytes are the cell type with highest metabolic function. In vitro hepatocyte culture models are gaining increasing attention from the pharmaceutical industry for metabolism profiling and early stage toxicity screening, but despite the vast number of publications on the topic, adaptation of in vitro hepatocyte models for industry scale drug screening applications is still full of challenges. Hepatocytes are anchorage-dependent cells known to rapidly lose their hepatic phenotype in vitro. Maintenance of their function is critically dependent on cell morphology which depends in turn on the physical structure and chemical composition of the in vitro extracellular environment. Hepatocytes supported by 3-D matrices are now accepted to retain more differentiated function, and demonstrate a rounded in-vivo like morphology, and strategies to control the physical and chemical characteristics of 3-D matrices are being sought that will lead to an in vitro system for industrial scale screening of new pharmaceuticals. In my project I utilized a 3-D cell carrier glass matrix that has been developed by Orla Protein Technologies Ltd., a company based in Newcastle, to culture HepG2 cells and primary hepatocytes. I conducted immunohistochemical studies on the 3 - D cell cultures to find out if the glass matrices supported their growth and maintained their functions.
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2012
- Former identifier
- 947884