Isolation of Human Hepatocytes by a Two-step Collagenase Perfusion Procedure

Overview

Journal J Vis Exp

Specialties Biology
General Medicine

Date 2013 Sep 24

PMID 24056912

Citations 50

Authors

Serene M L Lee

Celine Schelcher

Maresa Demmel

Maria Hauner

Wolfgang E Thasler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The liver, an organ with an exceptional regeneration capacity, carries out a wide range of functions, such as detoxification, metabolism and homeostasis. As such, hepatocytes are an important model for a large variety of research questions. In particular, the use of human hepatocytes is especially important in the fields of pharmacokinetics, toxicology, liver regeneration and translational research. Thus, this method presents a modified version of a two-step collagenase perfusion procedure to isolate hepatocytes as described by Seglen (1). Previously, hepatocytes have been isolated by mechanical methods. However, enzymatic methods have been shown to be superior as hepatocytes retain their structural integrity and function after isolation. This method presented here adapts the method designed previously for rat livers to human liver pieces and results in a large yield of hepatocytes with a viability of 77±10%. The main difference in this procedure is the process of cannulization of the blood vessels. Further, the method described here can also be applied to livers from other species with comparable liver or blood vessel sizes.

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