원문정보
초록
영어
To treat fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) patients, various extracorporeal bioartificial liver (BAL) support systems have been developed1). Most BAL systems utilize porcine primary hepatocytes as a biological component of the systems. The performance of a BAL depends on the functional activities of the hepatocytes immobilized in the bioreactor system. A packed-bed bioreactor with gel beads has higher surface area to volume ratio and cell capacity than those of a hollow fiber bioreactor. Therefore, the type of bioreactor may be a better alternative for hollow fiber-based BAL systems. In this study, we developed a stable packed-bed bioreactor system that induces any damage to the gel beads in the bioreactor by limiting the perfusion pressure. Hepatocyte spheroids formed by suspension culture were immobilized in alginate beads and loaded into a fixed-bed bioreactor. The bioreactor perfused with down-ward flow of media in which the flow was generated by difference of a media level between the reservoir and outlet chamber placed before and after the bioreactor respectively. The reactor showed stable liver functions for 12 hrs and any damage was detected at the beads taken from the bioreactor after the long-term operation.