Cultivation of primary hepatocytes induces an inflammation-cholestasis response that resembles features of in vivo inflammation during damage and regeneration

Although is well known that cultivation of primary hepatocytes results in a dramatic loss of function and dedifferentiation with features of epithelial to mesenchymal transition, it is generally assumed that most of these alterations are largely repressed on 3D extracellular matrix. To gain a comprehensive insight on the alterations occurring in culture, we performed gene array analysis of primary mouse hepatocytes in the 3 most common cultivation systems: 2D monolayer cultures confluent (MC) and sub-confluent (MS), and 3D collagen sandwich (S), for a 7 day period, using freshly isolated hepatocytes (FH) as refe…