A new bioassay including a small scale hepatocyte bioreactor for hepato-mediated toxicity testing in a target cell line

New approaches for in vitro testing of hepato-mediated toxicity are undertaken to offer alternatives to in vivo animal testing. The described bioassay for hepato-mediated toxicity testing is based on a small scale hepatocyte-bioreactor with pig hepatocytes connected to a silicon sensor based microphysiometer system for monitoring of the extracellular acidification rate (EAR) of cells and the microphysiometer alone. EAR represents the metabolic activity of tested cells (hepatocytes and ZR 751 cells) under the influence of perfused media, compared to controls, which were set to 100%. Cyclophosphamide (CYCL), whose cytostatic effect is dependent on CYP 450 biotransformation was used as a model substrate. CYCL showed decrease of EAR in hepatocytes, but not in ZR 751 cells. Bioreactor supernatant including CYCL was pumped into the microphysiometer and EARs of the target ZR 751 cell line were recorded. After 7 h of bioreactor supernatant perfusion the ZR 751 cell line showed an EAR decrease of 18.68% +/- 10.18, as compared to controls (bioreactor supernatant from the identical set-up without CYCL). Thus the presented model of hepato-activated toxicity showed an EAR decrease in the ZR 751 cell line that reflected the toxic activation of CYCL by the bioreactor. This new bioassay serves as an example of future applications for hepatocyte bioreactors in automated toxicity testing devices, e.g. in preclinical drug studies or evaluation of hepato-mediated toxicity, not depending on cell destruction or further assays.