FIG. 3.

Sourcing and culturing primary hepatocytes. (a) Primary hepatocytes can be isolated from animal models, such as rodents, or from human liver resections. (b) Hepatocyte culture approaches categorized by degree of complexity or biomimicry. Simple 2D hepatocyte cultures (i) are not very functional. This led to the development of ECM gel cultures (ii), co-cultures with non-parenchymal cells (iii), hepatocyte spheroids in ECM gel, (iv) and have culminated in precision cut slices (v).