Ashwini A. Ketkar-Atre1, Stefaan J. Soenen2,
Philip Roelandt3, Tineke Notelaers3, Greetje Vande
Velde4, Catherine Verfaillie3, Marcel De Cuyper5,
Uwe Himmelreich4
1Biomedical NMR
Unit/MoSAIC, , KULeuven Campus Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Flanders, Belgium; 2Department
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University , Belgium; 3Interdepartmental
Stem Cell Institute, KULeuven Campus Gasthuisberg; 4Biomedical NMR
Unit/MoSAIC, KULeuven Campus Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Flanders, Belgium; 5Lab
of BioNanoColloids, KULeuven Campus Kortrijk, IRC, Belgium
In diseases like liver cirrhosis or hepatitis where hepatocytes are damaged and healing is difficult, it is necessary to isolate hepatocytes from mixed population of endo- and mesodermal cells differentiated from stem cells. We labelled HepG2s, C17.2 (negative control) and mixture of cells containing hepatocytes like cells with Cationic MLs (unspecific uptake), Anionic MLs (negative control) and Lac MLs with galactose-terminal entities which are recognized by asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGPR). Higher specificity in uptake was observed with Lac MLs labelling with hepatocytes. And In vivo experiments revealed the potential use of Lac MLs as a contrast agent for liver therapy evaluation.