Perfusion Culture Improves the Maintenance of Cultured Liver Tissue Slices

Cultured precision-cut liver tissue slices are useful for studying the metabolism and toxicity of xenobiotics in liver. They may also be used to investigate the behavior of and interaction between different cell types in an intact histo-architecture. Because cultured liver tissues undergo a loss of function and morphology because of their separation from the blood supply, we investigated changes in key protein marker expressions in parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells, as well as in the extracellular matrix (ECM) at different time points. We also compared conventional culture methods such as static and dynamic cultures with perfusion culture, which allows a continuous exchange of the culture medium. In conventional culture methods, the expression of vimentin and collagen type IV decreased after 5 h in the non-parenchymal cells and the ECM, respectively, whereas the hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4α) staining in the hepatocytes remained constant. In perfusion culture, on the other hand, vimentin, c...