Study on the effects of the hierarchical structures of collagen gels on the morphologies of engineered liver cancer tissues

We have developed the method to control the macroscopic morphologies of engineered liver cancer tissues (ELCTs) by using three dimensional culture of HepG2 cells in collagen gels with and without a multichannel structure. During the culture period, HepG2 cells formed rod-like cell aggregates in the collagen gel with multichannel structure, whereas sphere-like cell aggregates observed in ELCT without multichannel structure. The results showed that we can control the microscopic morphologies of ELCTs by regulating the macroscopic structure of collagen hydrogels. By contrast, time courses of diameter and aspect ratio for ELCTs during the culture period were not dependent on the macroscopic structure of collagen hydrogels.