Long-Term Culture of Human Adult Liver Cells: Morphological Changes Related to in vitro Senescence and Effect of Donor’s Age on Growth Potential

The morphological aspects of ageing and growth capacity were studied in 100 lines of human liver cells. Under the culture conditions employed, liver cells appear to have a limited replicative life span. The morphological effects of ageing were similar to those described in the tissue culture of other organs. Studies on growth potential showed that there was a negative correlation between age of the donor tissue and age of the culture at the last passage, maximum number of doublings, number of doublings in phase II, and age of the culture at the end of phase II. The growth indices were different for epithelial-like and fibroblast-like cells.