Determination of the Survival of Recellularized Primary Hepatocytes in a Wistar Rat Liver Extracellular Matrix

Introduction: Liver diseases in Mexico are the fifth cause of mortality and it involves a limited donation culture. Currently, alternatives such as the use of extracellular matrix (ECM) are developed to solve this health problem. Tissue engineering works on recellularization techniques to combine cells, biomolecules, and bioscaffolds and thus create functional organs because they do not generate an antigenic response. Objective: To determine the survival of the recellularized primary hepatocytes in a Wistar rat liver extracellular matrix (ECM) in 7 days in vitro culture. Material and methods: Experimental and longitudinal study, five Wistar rats weighing 300 g were used. Once extracted, the livers were decellularized with the process of Morales-Guerrero et al. in 2022 through a gravity perfusion system (GPS) using washes in series of 3 h each one with no ionic and anionic detergents, subsequently, tissue sections from the MECs were sliced and used for in vitro cultures with GFP primary hepatocytes in 7 days. The evaluation was with histological stains. Results: After 7 days, cell proliferation was observed, with preserved morphology. Conclusions: the hepatic ECM allowed the survival of the recellularized hepatocytes and cell proliferation processes. This promotes the development of studies about the recellularization of extracellular matrixes.