Fig. 25.

Mimicking liver plates and fenestrated endothelium by seeding the hepatocytes in chambers enclosed by microfabricated pores. a1 Schematic representation of the system developed by Toh et al. (2009). An array of micropillars separates the microchannel in the central compartment containing the seeded hepatocytes and two-side compartments with the perfusing media. a2 Transmitted light image of seeded hepatocytes. b1–2 SEM micrograph and schematic representation of the microfluidic artificial sinusoid. The central channel containing the hepatocytes and the outer flow channel have a width of 50 µm and a height of 30 µm. b3a–3b phase-contrast and epifluorescence images (calcein and ethidium homodimer-1 staining) of hepatocytes seeded at low density. The images indicate that hepatocytes have a low viability at low cell density. b3c–d By contrast, hepatocytes seeded at high density are viable, as visible from the calcein staining (green) (from Lee et al. 2007)