An artificial liver sinusoid with a microfluidic endothelial‐like barrier for primary hepatocyte culture

Primary hepatocytes represent a physiologically relevant model for drug toxicity screening. Here, we created a biologically inspired artificial liver sinusoid with a microfluidic endothelial‐like barrier having mass transport properties similar to the liver acinus. This unit consisted of a cord of hepatocytes (50 × 30 × 500 µm) fed by diffusion of nutrients across the microfluidic endothelial‐like barrier from a convective transport vessel (10 nL/min). This configuration sustained rat and human hepatocytes for 7 days without an extracellular matrix (ECM) coating. Experiments with the metabolism mediated liver toxicant diclofenac showed no hepatotoxicity after 4 h and an IC 50 of 334 ± 41 µM after 24 h. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007; 97: 1340–1346. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.