Oxygen-mediated enhancement of primary hepatocyte metabolism, functional polarization, gene expression, and drug clearance

The liver is a major site for the metabolism of xenobiotic compounds due to its abundant level of phase I/II metabolic enzymes. With the cost of drug development escalating to over $400 million/drug there is an urgent need for the development of rigorous models of hepatic metabolism for preclinical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2009-09, Vol.106 (37), p.15714-15719
Main Authors:	Kidambi, Srivatsan, Yarmush, Rubin S, Novik, Eric, Chao, Piyun, Yarmush, Martin L, Nahmias, Yaakov
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Adaptations Albumins Animals Biological Sciences Bioreactors Cell culture Cell Polarity - physiology Cells Cells, Cultured Cellular metabolism Coculture Techniques Culture Media, Serum-Free Cultured cells Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System - metabolism Cytochrome P450 Drug development Drug Discovery Drug Interactions Drug screening Drugs Endothelial cells Endothelial Cells - cytology Endothelial Cells - metabolism Enzymes Gene Expression Hepatocytes Hepatocytes - cytology Hepatocytes - metabolism hepatotoxicity Humans Liver Media (culture) Metabolic clearance rate Metabolism Mice Microenvironments Oxygen Oxygen - metabolism Pharmaceutical Preparations - metabolism Physical Sciences Polarity Polarization R&D Rats Research & development Tissue Engineering
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Summary:	The liver is a major site for the metabolism of xenobiotic compounds due to its abundant level of phase I/II metabolic enzymes. With the cost of drug development escalating to over $400 million/drug there is an urgent need for the development of rigorous models of hepatic metabolism for preclinical screening of drug clearance and hepatotoxicity. Here, we present a microenvironment in which primary human and rat hepatocytes maintain a high level of metabolic competence without a long adaptation period. We demonstrate that co-cultures of hepatocytes and endothelial cells in serum-free media seeded under 95% oxygen maintain functional apical and basal polarity, high levels of cytochrome P450 activity, and gene expression profiles on par with freshly isolated hepatocytes. These oxygenated co-cultures demonstrate a remarkable ability to predict in vivo drug clearance rates of both rapid and slow clearing drugs with an R² of 0.92. Moreover, as the metabolic function of oxygenated co-cultures stabilizes overnight, preclinical testing can be carried out days or even weeks before other culture methods, significantly reducing associated labor and cost. These results are readily extendable to other culture configurations including three-dimensional culture, bioreactor studies, as well as microfabricated co-cultures.
ISSN:	0027-8424 1091-6490