Loofa sponge as a scaffold for culture of rat hepatocytes.

The dried fruit from Luffa cylindrica (loofa sponge, LS), which represents a new chitinous source material, was used as a 3-D scaffold for the culture of rat hepatocytes. With the macroporous structure and large pore size (ca. 800 microm) of LS, cell loading to the scaffold should be carried out by dynamic seeding with continuous shaking throughout the seeding period. Hepatocytes attach well to the surface of loofa fibers after seeding and maintain their round shapes. The initial ammonia removal and urea-N synthesis rates of hepatocytes immobilized within LS slightly decreased with increasing cell densities, but their metabolic activities were comparable to or better than those in monolayer culture on tissue culture polystyrene control surfaces. Both urea-N synthesis and albumin secretion rates could be maintained up to 7 days for cells immobilized within LS and spheroid-like cell aggregates could be found after the second day.