DOES THE EXTEND OF THE CULTURE TIME OF PRIMARY HEPATOCYTES IN A BIOREACTOR AFFECT THE TREATMENT EFFICACY OF A BIOARTIFICIAL LIVER

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the efficacy of o ur novel extracorporeal bioartificial liver (BAL) to support rats with complete liver ischemia (LIS) could be improved by extending the cult ure time of freshly isolated porcine hepatocytes from 14 hours to 38 h ours. The results showed that survival as well as porcine hepatocyte i ntegrity improved, the onset of coma delayed, and the ammonia levels d ecreased in LIS rats of the 38 hour group compared to the 14 hour grou p, but no statistically significant differences were observed In the 3 8 hour group, but not the 14 hour group, the onset of hepatic encephal opathy was significantly delayed and ammonia metabolism significantly improved compared to the LIS rats in control groups that only received a glucose infusion or were connected to a BAL without cells. In concl usion, prolonged hepatocyte recovery favoured all investigated paramet ers, although not all observed effects were statistically significant. More research is required to find out how long primary hepatocytes sh ould be cultured in a bioreactor for optimal BAL support.