Perfusion of 3D encapsulated hepatocytes—A synergistic effect enhancing long‐term functionality in bioreactors

Long‐term primary cultures of hepatocytes are essential for bioartificial liver (BAL) devices and to reduce and replace animal tests in lead candidate optimization in drug discovery and toxicology tests. The aim of this work was to improve bioreactor cultures of hepatocyte spheroids by adding a more physiological perfusion feeding regime to these bioreactor systems. A continuous perfusion feeding was compared with 50% medium replacement (routinely used for in vitro tests) at the same dilution rate, 0.125 day⁻¹, for three operative weeks. Perfusion feeding led to a 10‐fold improvement in albumin synthesis in bioreactors containing non‐encapsulated hepatocyte spheroids; no significant improvement was observed in phase I drug metabolizing activity. When ultra high viscous alginate encapsulated spheroids were cultured in perfusion, urea synthesis, phase I drug metabolizing activity and oxygen consumption had a threefold improvement over the 50% medium replacement regime; albumin production was the same for both feeding regimes. The effective diffusion of albumin in the alginate capsules was 7.75.10⁻⁹ cm² s⁻¹ and no diffusion limitation for this protein was observed using these alginate capsules under our operational conditions. In conclusion, perfusion feeding coupled with alginate encapsulation of hepatocyte spheroids showed a synergistic effect with a threefold improvement in three independent liver‐specific functions of long‐term hepatocyte spheroid cultures. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011; 108:41–49. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.