COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE MEDIA FOR FLUSHING EXTRACORPOREAL BIOARTIFICIAL LIVER SYSTEMS PRIOR TO CONNECTION TO THE PATIENTS CIRCULATION - AN IN-VITRO COMPARATIVE-STUDY IN 2-DIMENSIONAL AND 3-DIMENSIONAL PORCINE HEPATOCYTE CULTURES

Extracorporeal bioartificial liver (BAL) systems based on hepatocytes need to be flushed before clinical application, as hepatocyte culture media are not approved for medical use. Commercially available 0.9% Na Cl solution and hemofiltration solution (both supplemented with 10% hu man albumin) were investigated in vitro to test their potential to was h BAL systems with minimal stress for the cultured hepatocytes. After a 2 hour incubation, the lidocaine metabolising- capacity and release of liver enzymes were assessed. As hepatocytes have been cultured in b ioreactors in either two or three dimensional cell configurations, we tested the media in respectively hepatocyte monolayers cultures and in our newly developed bioreactor in which hepatocytes reorganise as sma ll hepatocyte aggregates. The three dimensional hepatocyte cultures to lerated both media well and no significant differences were seen compa red with hepatocytes cultured iri Williams' E (reference hepatocyte cu lture medium). The two dimensional hepatocyte cultures tolerated the s upplemented hemofiltration solution and the reference medium equally w ell, but the condition of the porcine hepatocytes monolayer cultures w as significantly impaired when incubated with the supplemented physiol ogical saline solution. In conclusion, as a supplemented physiological saline solution may have detrimental effects on the condition of the hepatocytes, the more complex hemofiltration solution (bicarbonate;; b uffered, glucose, essential minerals) was considered the better altern ative for flushing bioartificial liver systems.