Copolymer of Amino-Acid and Urethane as an Artificial Extracellular Matrix to Enhance the Primary Porcine Hepatocytes Attachment, Proliferation and Function

To develop liver substitute that restore, maintain and/or improve hepatic function, a variety of hybrid hepatic tissue systems have been studied using isolated porcine hepatocyte because of its easily availability[1]. The growth and function of cultured hepatocytes are known to depend on the mode of cell-cell interaction and cell to substrate interaction[2,3]. So there is currently much interest in designing substrates for enhancing the hepatocytes attachment, proliferation and function. Hepatocytes attach to culture dishes coated with the extracellular matrix (ECM) such as fibronectin and collagen. Hepatocytes exhibit different morphology, growth and differentiated function depending on matrix condition. The natural ECM like collagen and fibronectin usually induce hepatocytes to well spread morphology. In this paper, a new functional polymer of polyamino-acid urethane (PAU)[4], in which a polyurethane segment was combined with poly(γ-methyl-L-glutamate) (PMLG), was investigated as an artificial ECM [5] for enhancing the hepatocytes attachment, proliferation and function.