Culture of fetal mouse liver in plastic chambers: a new technique for organ culture.

A new technique for organ culture which uses plastic culture chambers and the advantages of the cellophane-sheet technique is described with the results of a study of cultivations of fetal mouse liver. Two chambers, each containing cells, were placed in gas permeable roller tubes and rotated at 0.1 rpm in a CO2-air gassed incubator. The fetal mouse liver cells developed electron microscopic features similar to those of the in vivo adult liver by 9 days of cultivation. The albumin content and tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) activity were detected in the cultivated liver. TAT activity was further induced by prednisolone. These results indicate that potential of this culture method for the study of physiological and pathological processes.