Quantitative Analysis of Vascular Structure in Decellularized Liver Using 3D Computed Tomography
Nana Shirakigawa, Tadamitsu Ideguchi, Kazuyuki Ichikawa, Takahisa Izumi, Michiko Higashi, Shizunari Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Ijima
Vol. 4 (2015) p. 179-185
Recently, decellularized liver (DC-liver) has been developed as a scaffold for the generation of liver tissue because DC-liver has a vascular structure that is used for oxygen delivery. The structure has been evaluated by the appearance of the resin cast. In the present study, three dimensional computed tomography was used to obtain images of the vascular structure. Imaging at the hepatic lobule level was achieved by coating the resin cast with a contrast dye or gold. We defined indices to evaluate blood vessel conformation and structure. The indices were measured and calculated from the images. The results suggest that DC-liver has a fine vascular structure quantitatively similar to that of native liver. This method is valuable for the development of whole liver engineering.