NANOFIBER-BASED LONG-TERM PRIMARY HEPATOCYTE THREE-DIMENSIONAL CULTURE SYSTEM AND CULTURING METHOD

摘要

The present invention relates to a nanofiber-based long-term primary hepatocyte culture system and a culturing method. Being structured to space human primary hepatocytes and non-parenchymal liver cells from each other with a support consisting of nanofibers deposited therebetween to co-culture the cells not directly but indirectly, the primary hepatocyte culture system has the advantage that the primary hepatocytes poor in proliferative rate can be three-dimensionally cultured in vitro while maintaining the intrinsic physiological activity thereof for a long term. This primary hepatocyte culture system is a liver tissue-simulated environment and can easily culture primary hepatocytes at low cost without using expensive serum, finding applications in various fields including drug-drug interaction analysis through induction and suppression of hepatic drug metabolizing enzymes (cytochrome P450 enzyme), analysis of functional uptake of transport in the liver, analysis of drug-induced liver damage, etc.