Evaluation of a Novel Renewable Hepatic Cell Model for Prediction of Clinical CYP3A4 Induction Using a Correlation-Based Relative Induction Score Approach.

Metabolism enzyme induction-mediated drug-drug interactions need to be carefully characterized in vitro for drug candidates to predict in vivo safety risk and therapeutic efficiency. Currently, both the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency recommend using primary human hepatocytes as the gold standard in vitro test system for studying the induction potential of candidate drugs on cytochrome P450 (CYP), CYP3A4, CYP1A2, and CYP2B6. However, primary human hepatocytes are known to bear inherent limitations such as limited supply and large lot-to-lot variations, which result in an experimental burden to qualify new lots. To overcome these shortcomings, a renewable source of human hepatocytes (i.e., Corning HepatoCells) was developed from primary human hepatocytes and was evaluated for in vitro CYP3A4 induction using methods well established by the pharmaceutical industry. HepatoCells have shown mature hepatocyte-like morphology and demonstrated primary hepatocyte-like response to prototypical inducers of all three CYP enzymes with excellent consistency. Importantly, HepatoCells retain a phenobarbital-responsive nuclear translocation of human constitutive androstane receptor from the cytoplasm, characteristic to primary hepatocytes. To validate HepatoCells as a useful tool to predict potential clinical relevant CYP3A4 induction, we tested three different lots of HepatoCells with a group of clinical strong, moderate/weak CYP3A4 inducers, and noninducers. A relative induction score calibration curve-based approach was used for prediction. HepatoCells showed accurate prediction comparable to primary human hepatocytes. Together, these results demonstrate that Corning HepatoCells is a reliable in vitro model for drug-drug interaction studies during the early phase of drug testing.

Methods for advanced hepatocyte cell culture in microwells utilizing air bubbles.

Flat, two-dimensional (2D) cell culture substrates are simple to use but offer little control over cell morphologies and behavior. In this article, we present a number of novel and unique methods for advanced cell culture in microwells utilizing air bubbles as a way to seed cells in order to provide substantial control over cellular microenvironments and organization to achieve specific cell-based applications. These cell culture methods enable controlled formation of stable air bubbles in the microwells that spontaneously formed when polar solvents such as cell culture media are loaded. The presence of air bubbles (air bubble masking) enables highly controllable cell patterning and organization of seeded cells as well as cell co-culture in microwells. In addition, these cell culture methods are simple to use and implement, yet versatile, and have the potential to provide a wide range of microenvironments to improve in vivo-like behavior for a number of cell types and applications. The air bubble masking technique can also be used to produce a micron thick layer of collagen film suspended on top of the microwells. These collagen film enclosed microwells could provide an easy way for high throughput drug screening and cytotoxicity assays as different drug compounds could be pre-loaded and dried in selected microwells and then released during cell culture.

Microstructured multi-well plate for three-dimensional packed cell seeding and hepatocyte cell culture.

In this article, we present a microstructured multi-well plate for enabling three-dimensional (3D) high density seeding and culture of cells through the use of a standard laboratory centrifuge to promote and maintain 3D tissue-like cellular morphology and cell-specific functionality in vitro without the addition of animal derived or synthetic matrices or coagulants. Each well has microfeatures on the bottom that are comprised of a series of ditches/open microchannels. The dimensions of the microchannels promote and maintain 3D tissue-like cellular morphology and cell-specific functionality in vitro. After cell seeding with a standard pipette, the microstructured multi-well plates were centrifuged to tightly pack cells inside the ditches in order to enhance cell-cell interactions and induce formation of 3D cellular structures during cell culture. Cell-cell interactions were optimized based on cell packing by considering dimensions of the ditches/open microchannels, orientation of the microstructured multi-well plate during centrifugation, cell seeding density, and the centrifugal force and time. With the optimized cell packing conditions, we demonstrated that after 7 days of cell culture, primary human hepatocytes adhered tightly together to form cord-like structures that resembled 3D tissue-like cellular architecture. Importantly, cell membrane polarity was restored without the addition of animal derived or synthetic matrices or coagulants.

Perfusion-based microfluidic device for three-dimensional dynamic primary human hepatocyte cell culture in the absence of biological or synthetic matrices or coagulants.

We describe a perfusion-based microfluidic device for three-dimensional (3D) dynamic primary human hepatocyte cell culture. The microfluidic device was used to promote and maintain 3D tissue-like cellular morphology and cell-specific functionality of primary human hepatocytes by restoring membrane polarity and hepatocyte transport function in vitro without the addition of biological or synthetic matrices or coagulants. A unique feature of our dynamic cell culture device is the creation of a microenvironment, without the addition of biological or synthetic matrices or coagulants, that promotes the 3D organization of hepatocytes into cord-like structures that exhibit functional membrane polarity as evidenced by the expression of gap junctions and the formation of an extended, functionally active, bile canalicular network.

White matter injury after cerebral ischemia in ovine fetuses.

The effects of cerebral ischemia on white matter changes in ovine fetuses were examined after exposure to bilateral carotid artery occlusion. Fetal sheep were exposed to 30 min of ischemia followed by 48 (I/R-48, n = 8) or 72 (I/R-72, n = 10) h of reperfusion or control sham treatment (control, n = 4). Serial coronal sections stained with Luxol fast blue/hematoxylin and eosin were scored for white matter, cerebral cortical, and hippocampal lesions. All areas received graded pathologic scores of 0 to 5, reflecting the degree of injury where 0 = 0%, 1 = 1% to 25%, 2 = 26% to 50%, 3 = 51% to 75%, 4 = 76% to 95%, and 5 = 96% to 100% of the area damaged. Dual-label immunofluorescence using antibodies against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and myelin basic protein (MBP) were used to characterize white matter lesions. Basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) was measured in the frontal cortex by ELISA. Results of the pathologic scores showed that the white matter of the I/R-72 (2.74 +/- 0.53, mean +/- SEM) was more (p < 0.05) damaged when compared with the control (0.80 +/- 0.33) group. Cortical lesions were greater (p < 0.05) in the I/R-48 (2.12 +/- 0.35) than the control (0.93 +/- 0.09) group. White matter lesions were characterized by reactive GFAP-positive astrocytes and a loss of MBP in oligodendrocytes. The ratio of MBP to GFAP decreased (p < 0.05) as a function of ischemia, indicative of a proportionally greater loss of MBP than GFAP. FGF-2 concentrations were higher (p < 0.05) in the I/R-72 than the control group and there was a direct correlation between the pathologic scores (PS) and FGF-2 concentrations (FGF-2 = e((1.6 PS-0.90)) + 743, n = 17, r = 0.73, p < 0.001). We conclude that carotid artery occlusion results in quantifiable white matter lesions that are associated with a loss of MBP from myelin, and that FGF-2, a purported mediator of recovery from brain injury in adult subjects, increases in concentration in proportion to the severity of brain damage in the fetus.

Effects of sodium butyrate and acidic fibroblast growth factor on TDC32300 cultured cells.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have demonstrated that transition duct cells (TDC) are facultative liver stem cells. Our laboratory established TDC32300 cell lines with hepatic progenitor markers. The authors proposed that cell culture using sodium butyrate (NaBut) and acidic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF) may support the differentiation of TDC32300 cells along the hepatic lineage. METHODS: TDC32300 cells were cultured in four different conditions 1) STON media alone; 2) STON with NaBut in 3 different concentrations, 1 mM, 3.75 mM and 5 mM; 3) STON with aFGF; and 4) STON with aFGF and dexamethasone. After day 5, the cultured cells were fixed and stained with monoclonal antibodies to rat liver antigens and anti-proliferating nuclear antigen (PCNA). RESULTS: Proliferation of TDC32300 cells cultured in the high concentration of NaBut (3.75 and 5 mM) was inhibited. This phenomenon was confirmed by the reduction in cell number and decrease in PCNA expression. Irrespective of the concentration, NaBut did not alter the phenotype of the TDC32300 cultured cells. aFGF with or without dexamethasone also did not alter the phenotypic characteristic of TDC32300 cells. CONCLUSION: TDC32300 cells may not be the hepatic progenitors or that their differentiation may require other culture conditions.