Collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet, Part 2 - 2023

As part of our collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet, Jean-Baptiste Potier, PhD student at CeeD and ILONOV, had the opportunity to be welcomed a second time at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in order to deepen his skills in 3D cell culture between March and April 2023.

Specifically, the aim was to learn a new method of liver spheroids. The first model comprised only hepatocytes, which is suitable for the study of steatosis and insulin resistance, the main hallmarks of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), however, in order to study its progression, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and thus inflammation and fibrosis, one should include other liver cell types that are affected above hepatocytes. One of this cell types, hepatic stellate cells, are also present in the liver and are meant to store vitamin A as a quiescent state in healthy individuals. However, once NAFLD progresses and disturbs the hepatic micro-environment, they become activated and produce collagen and inflammatory factors, leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis. Then, the aim of this second trip was to learn how to co-culture hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells in liver spheroids, in order to focus more on the hallmarks of NASH.