Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #263110
Title: Feeder-independent continuous culture of the PICM-19 pig liver stem cell line.

Author
item Talbot, Neil
item Blomberg, Le Ann
item Garrett, Wesley
item Caperna, Thomas

Submitted to: In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/14/2010
Publication Date: 10/12/2010
Citation: Talbot, N.C., Blomberg, L., Garrett, W.M., Caperna, T.J. 2010. Feeder-independent continuous culture of the PICM-19 pig liver stem cell line.. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Interpretive Summary: The goal of the work with the ARS-PICM-19 pig liver stem cell line is to improve the cell line for biomedical and agricultural applications, and the presented work was initiated under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Hepalife Technologies, Inc., and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Several potential uses for the PICM-19 cell line would be enhanced or enabled by devising a cell culture system that does not require the use of so-called “feeder-cells”, and our recent report described a simple “feeder-cell-free” method for the continuous culture of the PICM-19 cell line. By removing the feeder-layer from the culture system, better in vitro pharmacological and toxicological assays of liver function may be able to be devised. Also, the cell line’s use as the biological component of an artificial liver device (ALD) is markedly advanced because ideally the living component of an ALD should be fully defined, in and of itself, and in its culture components. For agricultural purposes, the feeder-independent culture of the PICM-19 cells will simplify transfection of the cells for the in vitro analysis of transgene constructs and in the cells’ use as the “nucleus donor” in the somatic cell cloning technique, i.e., animal cloning, the method whereby precise genetic changes to pigs might be made in the future. The feeder-independent culture of the PICM-19 cells is the first step in our attempt to establish a fully defined culture system for the cells, i.e., one free of fetal bovine serum and feeder-cell-derived substances. If achieved, this might enable the cells to be introduced into the in vivo environment of the pig without causing rapid inflammatory responses. The cells might then be used as a reagent for “cellular augmentation”, where PICM-19 cells, genetically engineered to produce growth stimulating substances and vaccine components, would be placed into newborn pigs in order to enhance their growth, disease resistance, and well-being.

Technical Abstract: N/A