Drug-induced human hepatotoxicity is difficult to predict using the current in vitro systems. In this study, long-term 3D organotypic cultures of the human hepatoma HepaRG cell line were prepared using a high-throughput hanging drop method. The organotypic cultures were maintained for 3 weeks and assessed for (1) liver specific functions, including phase I enzyme and transporter activities, (2)...

OBJECTIVE The organotypic co-culture is a well-known technique to examine cellular interactions and their roles in stem cell proliferation and differentiation. This study aims to evaluate the effects of dermal fibroblasts (DFs) on epidermal differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using a three-dimensional (3D) organotypic co- culture technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this exper...

Functional and reliable in vitro models of Parkinson's disease (PD) are valuable for studying mechanisms of dopaminergic degeneration before proceeding to animal testing. At present, all in vitro models involve substitute cell types and thus their direct relevance to PD is questionable. Here, we describe an organotypic culture model which conserves the 3D architecture of the nigro-striatal path...

Organotypic cultures of histaminergic tuberomammillary (TM) neurons were grown using explants obtained from newborn rats. The cultures were examined after immunohistochemical localization of the histamine synthetic enzyme, L-histidine decarboxylase (HDC). The morphological properties of the somata, dendrites and axons of HDC-immunoreactive TM neurons in organotypic culture were virtually indist...

One of the limitations of conventional tissue culture on flat two-dimensional surfaces is the loss of complex interactions between the epithelium and stroma. We have devised a culture system that recreates the salient features of the stratified epithelium using primary cell cultures from mouse models. The protocol described here is applicable to the esophageal epithelium, but stratified epithel...