Reproducing human and cross-species drug toxicities using a Liver-Chip

KJ Jang, MA Otieno, J Ronxhi, HK Lim… - Science translational …, 2019 - science.org
KJ Jang, MA Otieno, J Ronxhi, HK Lim, L Ewart, KR Kodella, DB Petropolis, G Kulkarni
Science translational medicine, 2019science.org
Nonclinical rodent and nonrodent toxicity models used to support clinical trials of candidate
drugs may produce discordant results or fail to predict complications in humans, contributing
to drug failures in the clinic. Here, we applied microengineered Organs-on-Chips technology
to design a rat, dog, and human Liver-Chip containing species-specific primary hepatocytes
interfaced with liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, with or without Kupffer cells and hepatic
stellate cells, cultured under physiological fluid flow. The Liver-Chip detected diverse …
Nonclinical rodent and nonrodent toxicity models used to support clinical trials of candidate drugs may produce discordant results or fail to predict complications in humans, contributing to drug failures in the clinic. Here, we applied microengineered Organs-on-Chips technology to design a rat, dog, and human Liver-Chip containing species-specific primary hepatocytes interfaced with liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, with or without Kupffer cells and hepatic stellate cells, cultured under physiological fluid flow. The Liver-Chip detected diverse phenotypes of liver toxicity, including hepatocellular injury, steatosis, cholestasis, and fibrosis, and species-specific toxicities when treated with tool compounds. A multispecies Liver-Chip may provide a useful platform for prediction of liver toxicity and inform human relevance of liver toxicities detected in animal studies to better determine safety and human risk.
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