Selection, Enrichment, and Maintenance of Self-Renewal Liver Stem/Progenitor Cells Utilizing Polypeptide Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films

• Published in: Biomacromolecules 2010-04, Vol.11 (4), p.994-1001
• Main Authors: Tsai, Hsuan-Ang, Wu, Ruei-Ren, Lee, I-Chi, Chang, Hsiao-Yuan, Shen, Chia-Ning, Chang, Ying-Chih
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal cells; Animals; Applied sciences; Biocompatible Materials - chemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers - analysis; Biomarkers - metabolism; Biotechnology; Cell Differentiation; Cell Proliferation; Electrolytes - pharmacology; Establishment of new cell lines, improvement of cultural methods, mass cultures; Eukaryotic cell cultures; Exact sciences and technology; Fetus; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Liver - cytology; Liver - embryology; Liver - metabolism; Liver Regeneration - physiology; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Mice; Organic polymers; Peptides - chemistry; Physicochemistry of polymers; Properties and characterization; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Special properties (catalyst, reagent or carrier); Stem Cells - cytology; Tissue Engineering
• ISSN: 1525-7797; 1526-4602
• DOI: 10.1021/bm901461e

Recent progress has led to the identification of liver stem/progenitor cells as suitable sources for generating transplantable liver cells. However, the great variability in methods utilized to isolate liver stem/progenitor cells is a considerable challenge for clinical applications. The polyelectrolyte-multilayer technique can constitute a useful method for selective cell adhesion. Whether enrichment of liver stem/progenitor cells can be achieved utilizing polypeptide polyelectrolyte-multilayer films was investigated in current work. Fetal liver cells isolated from E13.5 mouse embryos were seeded on the poly-l-glutamic acid/poly-l-lysine alternating films, and we revealed that fetal liver stem/progenitor cells were selected and formed colonies. These undifferentiated colonies were maintained on the films composed of four alternating layers, with the topmost poly-l-glutamic acid layer judged by the constitutive expression of stem-cell markers such as Dlk-1, CD49f, and CD133 and self-renew marker-β-catenin. Our work has demonstrated that highly tunable polyelectrolyte-multilayer films were suitable for selective enrichment of liver stem/progenitor cells in vitro.