Hepatic Cellular Microarrays to study liver fibrosis

The image represents a part of a cellular microarray. The rows serve as different microenvironmental conditions (different protein compositions printed on a 2D hydrogel) present in the liver, and the columns are replicates of those conditions. Using these microarrays, we can study various biochemical and biophysical cues with their influence on cell behavior in a high-throughput manner. Here, we studied human hepatic stellate cells, which play a major role in liver fibrosis. We culture these cells on the microarrays followed by quantification of Collagen 1(Red) and Lox (Green) production(which are indicators of disease phenotype) in these cells. Interestingly, we notice in the first row, these cells do not attach and grow as much compared to microenvironments on row 2 and 3. We perform single cell quantification of the different fluorescent signals on these fluorescent images to delineate the differences in the protein expression and hence the disease condition, on different microenvironments. Our ultimate goal with these high-throughput experiments to find cues that influence these cells to become fibrotic and cues that attenuate the fibrosis. This could aid in building both drug treatments and disease models for further testing and understanding of the disease.Ope