Improvement of Infusion Process in Cell Transplantation: Effect of Shear Stress on Hepatocyte Viability under Horizontal and Vertical Syringe Orientation

Abstract

Improving cell viability and function are important for enhancing the clinical results of cell transplantation. The relationship between cell viability and shear stress remains unexplained, and sedimentation effects during the infusion process are important to the hepatocyte transplantation process. In the present study, the relationship between cell viability and shear stress in the presence of sedimentation effect was investigated using a microchannel simulating the cell transplantation process under several shear stress conditions. Horizontal and vertical syringe orientations were employed to investigate the sedimentation effect. The vertical syringe orientation resulted in lower viability loss than the horizontal orientation. In summary, removing a sedimentation effect is important to improving cell viability by preventing high shear stress.