Hepatotoxicity is one of the major reason for drug withdrawal from pharmaceutical development and clinical use. In vitro hepatotoxicity assays mimic in vivo tissue studies and in turn provide a reliable tool for safety assessment in the early stages of drug development. Creative Bioarray has developed standard and innovative in vitro models to address the need for early stage hepatotoxicity testing.

Liver Slices

Liver tissue slices can be a beneficial model as they contain all the cell types found in vivo, have good in vitro/in vivo correlation of xenobiotic metabolism, and maintain zone-specific cytochrome activity and toxicity mechanisms.

Immortalized Cell Lines

Common used immortalized liver-derived cell lines are Fa2N-4, HepG2, Hep3B, PLc/PRFs Huh7, HBG, and HepaRG, most of which do not possess phenotypic characteristics of the liver tissue.

Primary Hepatocyte Suspensions

Hepatocyte suspensions are an easy to use method for moderately high-throughput toxicity studies. The suspension retains a high level of functionality making it more accurately associated with in vivo toxicity than cultured cells. However, it is well known that most isolation protocols result in damage to cell junctions, cell surface receptors and antigens, cell membranes, and cytosolic contents.

Primary Hepatocyte Cultures

Cultures of primary hepatocytes have been the gold standard for in vitro testing because they can maintain functional activities for 24-72 hours, can be used for enzyme induction and inhibition studies, allow for medium-throughput screening of compounds, and are ideal for determining interspecies and inter-individual differences in metabolism.