Integrated Assessment of Diclofenac Biotransformation, Pharmacokinetics, and Omics-Based Toxicity in a Three-Dimensional Human Liver-Immunocompetent Coculture System

Maximizing the impact of microphysiological systems with in vitro-in vivo translation

Microphysiological systems (MPS) hold promise for improving therapeutic drug approval rates by providing more physiological, human-based, in vitro assays for preclinical drug development activities compared to traditional in vitro and animal models. Here, we first summarize why MPSs are needed in pharmaceutical development, and examine how MPS technologies can be utilized to improve preclinical efforts. We then provide the perspective that the full impact of MPS technologies will be realized only when robust approaches for in vitro-in vivo (MPS-to-human) translation are developed and utilized, and explain how the burgeoning field of quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) can fill that need.

Bioengineered Liver Models for Drug Testing and Cell Differentiation Studies

In vitro models of the human liver are important for the following: (1) mitigating the risk of drug-induced liver injury to human beings, (2) modeling human liver diseases, (3) elucidating the role of single and combinatorial microenvironmental cues on liver cell function, and (4) enabling cell-based therapies in the clinic. Methods to isolate and culture primary human hepatocytes (PHHs), the gold standard for building human liver models, were developed several decades ago; however, PHHs show a precipitous decline in phenotypic functions in 2-dimensional extracellular matrix-coated conventional culture formats, which does not allow chronic treatment with drugs and other stimuli. The development of several engineering tools, such as cellular microarrays, protein micropatterning, microfluidics, biomaterial scaffolds, and bioprinting, now allow precise control over the cellular microenvironment for enhancing the function of both PHHs and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cells; long-term (4+ weeks) stabilization of hepatocellular function typically requires co-cultivation with liver-derived or non-liver-derived nonparenchymal cell types. In addition, the recent development of liver organoid culture systems can provide a strategy for the enhanced expansion of therapeutically relevant cell types. Here, we discuss advances in engineering approaches for constructing in vitro human liver models that have utility in drug screening and for determining microenvironmental determinants of liver cell differentiation/function. Design features and validation data of representative models are presented to highlight major trends followed by the discussion of pending issues that need to be addressed. Overall, bioengineered liver models have significantly advanced our understanding of liver function and injury, which will prove useful for drug development and ultimately cell-based therapies.

Integrated Gut and Liver Microphysiological Systems for Quantitative In Vitro Pharmacokinetic Studies

Investigation of the pharmacokinetics (PK) of a compound is of significant importance during the early stages of drug development, and therefore several in vitro systems are routinely employed for this purpose. However, the need for more physiologically realistic in vitro models has recently fueled the emerging field of tissue-engineered 3D cultures, also referred to as organs-on-chips, or microphysiological systems (MPSs). We have developed a novel fluidic platform that interconnects multiple MPSs, allowing PK studies in multi-organ in vitro systems along with the collection of high-content quantitative data. This platform was employed here to integrate a gut and a liver MPS together in continuous communication, and investigate simultaneously different PK processes taking place after oral drug administration in humans (e.g., intestinal permeability, hepatic metabolism). Measurement of tissue-specific phenotypic metrics indicated that gut and liver MPSs can be fluidically coupled with circulating common medium without compromising their functionality. The PK of diclofenac and hydrocortisone was investigated under different experimental perturbations, and results illustrate the robustness of this integrated system for quantitative PK studies. Mechanistic model-based analysis of the obtained data allowed the derivation of the intrinsic parameters (e.g., permeability, metabolic clearance) associated with the PK processes taking place in each MPS. Although these processes were not substantially affected by the gut-liver interaction, our results indicate that inter-MPS communication can have a modulating effect (hepatic metabolism upregulation). We envision that our integrative approach, which combines multi-cellular tissue models, multi-MPS platforms, and quantitative mechanistic modeling, will have broad applicability in pre-clinical drug development.

Integrated gut/liver microphysiological systems elucidates inflammatory inter-tissue crosstalk

A capability for analyzing complex cellular communication among tissues is important in drug discovery and development, and in vitro technologies for doing so are required for human applications. A prominent instance is communication between the gut and the liver, whereby perturbations of one tissue can influence behavior of the other. Here, we present a study on human gut‐liver tissue interactions under normal and inflammatory contexts, via an integrative multi‐organ platform comprising human liver (hepatocytes and Kupffer cells), and intestinal (enterocytes, goblet cells, and dendritic cells) models. Our results demonstrated long‐term (>2 weeks) maintenance of intestinal (e.g., barrier integrity) and hepatic (e.g., albumin) functions in baseline interaction. Gene expression data comparing liver in interaction with gut, versus isolation, revealed modulation of bile acid metabolism. Intestinal FGF19 secretion and associated inhibition of hepatic CYP7A1 expression provided evidence of physiologically relevant gut‐liver crosstalk. Moreover, significant non‐linear modulation of cytokine responses was observed under inflammatory gut‐liver interaction; for example, production of CXCR3 ligands (CXCL9,10,11) was synergistically enhanced. RNA‐seq analysis revealed significant upregulation of IFNα/β/γ signaling during inflammatory gut‐liver crosstalk, with these pathways implicated in the synergistic CXCR3 chemokine production. Exacerbated inflammatory response in gut‐liver interaction also negatively affected tissue‐specific functions (e.g., liver metabolism). These findings illustrate how an integrated multi‐tissue platform can generate insights useful for understanding complex pathophysiological processes such as inflammatory organ crosstalk. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2648–2659. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.