3D Culture System for Liver Tissue Mimicking Hepatic Plates for Improvement of Human Hepatocyte (C3A) Function and Polarity

Figure 6

Comparison of hepatocyte polarity. (a) Comparison of gene expression levels of hepatocyte structural polarity proteins. The data are presented as the . Two-way ANOVA: comparison between H and other groups: , , . (b) Immunofluorescence staining of hepatocyte polarity proteins: staining of occludin (occludin: green; cell nucleus: blue) (i), staining of ZO-1 (ZO-1: green; cell nucleus: blue) (ii), staining of MRP2 (MRP2: red; cell nucleus: blue) (iii); staining of CD147 (CD147: red; cell nucleus: blue) (iv). All scale bars: 10 μm. (c) Comparison of cultured hepatocyte ultrastructure: red rectangles represent magnified sites of every group at various time points, with the corresponding magnified images to the right of the original image. Red letters represent the following: H: hepatocyte; EC: endothelial cell; A1: alginate hydrogel; C: collagen; N: cell nucleus; BC: bile canaliculi; TJ: tight junction; Mi: microvilli; G: Golgi bodies; P: phagosome; AP: autophagosome. Scale bar: the scale bars for the low-magnification images of Groups H and M on days 1, 7, and 13 represent 2 μm. The scale bar for high-magnification images is 500 nm, except for the right image in M13, where the scale bar is 2 μm. The scale bars for the left images for Groups S and P on day 1 are 5 μm. The scale bars for the right images for Groups S and P on day 1 are 2 μm. The scale bar for panel S7 is 2 μm. The scale bars for P7, S13, and P13 are 5 μm. H: hepatic plate-mimetic group; M: mixed 3D group; S: sandwich group; P: mixed 2D/plate group.

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