Reconstruction of 3D stacked hepatocyte tissues using degradable, microporous poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) membranes.

There is great demand for constructing well-organized three-dimensional (3D) tissues in vitro. Here, we developed a 3D stacked culture method using biodegradable poly(d,l-lactide-co- glycolide) (PLGA) membranes with defined topography. Pore size and porosity of the membranes can be controlled by changing the moisture content during fabrication. The optimized membrane served as a scaffold to manipulate small hepatocyte (SH) layers when they were stacked, while it degraded after stacking, resulting in the reorganization of the cells into a 3D stacked structure. Immunofluorescent staining for domain markers of cell polarity and electron microscopy confirmed that the cells in the 3D stacked structures recovered polarity. Furthermore, the cells exhibited improved liver-specific function as compared with cells in a monolayer. This 3D stacked culture may enable reconstruction of multilayered hepatic tissues with highly differentiated functions in vitro.