2.5. Isolation and primary culture of CEHs
Fertilized avian chicken eggs were obtained from a commercial hatching factory, incubated at 37.5 °C with a relative humidity of 60% and killed on Day 14 of incubation. Primary culture of embryonic hepatocytes was prepared according to Zhou and Zhang (2005) with modifications. Briefly, after being anesthetized in cold PBS the chicken embryos were killed by decapitation and the livers were removed under sterile conditions.