Verma Poonam, Verma Vipin, Ray Pratima, Ray Alok R
Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi-110016, India.
J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2009 Jul;3(5):368-76. doi: 10.1002/term.172.
Agar-gelatin hybrid sponges were used as scaffolds to induce the formation of three-dimensional (3D) spheroids of HepG2 cells. Agar and gelatin in 2:1 ratio were used to make films and sponges. The cell adhesive properties of the films were evaluated by the attachment kinetics. The growth kinetics of HepG2 cells was studied using MTT assay and morphology of the 3D spheroids was observed through inverted optical microscopy. The liver cell-specific functions of the 3D spheroids were evaluated in terms of albumin secretion and urea synthesis. Paracetamol was used as a model drug to investigate the use of these 3D spheroids in the preliminary cytotoxicity evaluation of drugs. The results showed that the agar-gelatin hybrid sponges induced the formation of 3D HepG2 spheroids with significant liver-specific functions. These spheroids exhibited higher amounts of albumin and urea synthesis than the control monolayer culture. These 3D spheroids were found to be more sensitive to the drug (TCIC(50) value of 4.6 mM) than the control monolayer (TCIC(50) value of 6.2 mM). The study shows that agar-gelatin-induced HepG2 3D spheroids can be used for the preliminary evaluation of the toxicity of drugs and chemicals.
琼脂 - 明胶混合海绵被用作支架来诱导HepG2细胞形成三维（3D）球体。以2:1的比例使用琼脂和明胶来制作薄膜和海绵。通过附着动力学评估薄膜的细胞黏附特性。使用MTT法研究HepG2细胞的生长动力学，并通过倒置光学显微镜观察3D球体的形态。根据白蛋白分泌和尿素合成评估3D球体的肝细胞特异性功能。使用对乙酰氨基酚作为模型药物来研究这些3D球体在药物初步细胞毒性评估中的应用。结果表明，琼脂 - 明胶混合海绵诱导形成具有显著肝脏特异性功能的3D HepG2球体。这些球体比对照单层培养物表现出更高量的白蛋白和尿素合成。发现这些3D球体比对照单层（半数抑制浓度（TCIC）值为6.2 mM）对药物更敏感（TCIC值为4.6 mM）。该研究表明，琼脂 - 明胶诱导的HepG2 3D球体可用于药物和化学品毒性的初步评估。
