Adult rat hepatocytes cultured on an oxygen-permeable film increases the activity of albumin secretion

Primary culture of rat hepatocyte was performed in an oxygen-permeable film dish (F-dish), which would be expected to give an oxygen-rich culture condition. In the conventional culture dish in which the depth of medium was 2 mm, the oxygen tension (pO2) in the medium decreased from 19% (144 mmHg) to 0.3% (2.3 mmHg) within 2 hr, while the pO2 in the F-dish maintained 8.5% (64.6 mmHg) even after 2 hr. The adverse effect of the oxygen-deficiency appeared in the albumin secretion activity of the hepatocytes and it was more remarkable in the early period of culture. The average rate of albumin secretion for the initial 48 hr was 2.0 μg ml-1 hr-1 or 96 μg 106 cells-1 day-1 in the F-dish. The average rate of albumin secretion for the initial 12 hr was only 0.36 μg ml-1 hr-1 in the conventional culture dish. The activity of ammonia elimination in the F-dish was 20–50% higher than the conventional culture dish. Three-dimensional aggregate was formed only in the F-dish. The advantage of three-dimensional aggregate for albumin secretion was not clear compared with two-dimensional monolayer.