Stable immobilization of rat hepatocytes as hemispheroids onto collagen-conjugated poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces: importance of direct oxygenation through PDMS for both formation and function.

The highly oxygen-permeable material, poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS), has the potential to be applied to cell culture microdevices, but cell detachment from PDMS has been a major problem. In this study, we demonstrate that a combination of collagen covalently immobilized PDMS and an adequate oxygen supply enables the establishment of a stable, attached spheroid (hemispheroid) culture of rat hepatocytes. The bottom PDMS surfaces were first treated with oxygen plasma, then coupled with aminosilane followed by a photoreactive crosslinker, and they were finally reacted with a collagen solution. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements showed that the covalent immobilization of collagen on the surface occurred only where the crosslinker had been introduced. On the collagen-conjugated PDMS surface, rat hepatocytes organized themselves into hemispheroids and maintained the viability and a remarkably high albumin production at least for 2 weeks of culture. In contrast, hepatocytes on the other types of PDMS surfaces formed suspended spheroids that had low albumin production. In addition, we showed that blocking the oxygen supply through the bottom PDMS surface inhibited the formation of hemispheroids and the augmentation of hepatocellular function. These results show that appropriate surface modification of PDMS is a promising approach towards the development of liver tissue microdevices.