Modulating Primary Human Hepatocyte Functions via Growth Factor Delivery from Chitosan-Heparin Polyelectrolyte Multilayers

摘要

Conclusions: ECM-modified chitosan-heparin PEMs are compatible with the culture of PHHs and can be used to deliver growth factors to these cells via binding to heparin as occurs in vivo. However, growth factor delivery alone was not sufficient to stabilize the PHH phenotype, thereby necessitating co-culture with fibroblasts. Delivering TGFβ to cultures/co-cultures via adsorption to heparin-terminated PEMs enhanced PHH functions, whereas soluble delivery via culture medium led to functional downregulation. Thus, chitosan-heparin PEMs are useful for studying the crosstalk between cell-cell, cell-growth factor, and cell-ECM signaling in human liver models.