Hepatocytes maintain their function on basement membrane formed by epithelial cells.

To establish liver tissue engineering, the effective substratum for hepatocytes culture should be developed. Up to now, it is believed that Matrigel, which contains several basement membrane proteins produced by sarcoma cells, is the most effective substratum. Matrigel does not contain extracellular matrix molecules derived from epithelial cells although the space of Disse contains the molecules such as laminin-511/521 (laminin-10/11). Therefore, the basement membrane formed by epithelial cells can be more effective substratum than Matrigel. In this study, we evaluated hepatocytes behavior on basement membrane (rBM) formed by alveolar epithelial cells. The viability of hepatocytes on rBM is higher than that of Matrigel within 5 days. Also, the expression of Cyp1a2 induced by beta-naphthoflavone can be observed in hepatocytes on rBM but not in Matrigel. These results indicate that rBM is a more effective substratum for hepatocyte culture than Matrigel.