Utilization of a human Liver Tissue Chip for drug-metabolizing enzyme induction studies of perpetrator and victim drugs

3D hepatic spheroids and liver-organ on chip models displayed maintenance of hepatic functions and maturation profile in a long-term culture of the humanized HepaSH cells, a human cell population harvested from chimeric mice

Long-term functional hepatocyte and reproducible cultures are required in pharmaceutical industries to model chronic liver disorders and to perform associated drug testing. In this frame, we have investigated the behavior of the HepaSH cells when cultivated in liver Biochips, in 3D Spheroids, and in Petri for 20 days. HepaSH is a newly developed humanized hepatocyte harvested from chimeric mice. After the cells' harvesting and inoculation, the HepaSH were successfully maintained in cultures in Petri dishes, spheroids, and Biochips for 20 days. The immunostaining confirmed the expressions of albumin, CYP1A2, and CYP3A4 in all conditions. Furthermore, the CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 activities were successfully detected in all conditions after 20 days of cultures. Continuous production of albumin and biliary acids was detected in Biochips, Spheroids, and Petri, among which Biochip culture showed the highest albumin secretion level. The RNA sequencing analysis revealed that Biochips and Spheroids cultures enriched hepatic maturation, xenobiotic, lipid, small molecule, steroid, and alcohol metabolisms compared to Petri cultures. Overall, our data demonstrated the feasibility of cultivating the HepaSH cells in Petri, Biochips, and Spheroids for 20 days in the presented protocol, while keeping important liver functions. Biochip and Spheroids cultures show advantages in hepatic maturation, drug metabolism-related gene expression, and albumin secretion (in biochips) compared with conventional Petri culture.

Impact on efficacy of target reduction of two FDA-approved ASO drugs by intracellular glucose levels in in vitro cell models

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have emerged as a new therapeutic modality for the treatment of both rare and common human diseases. A significant proportion of the patient population that may benefit from ASO therapy may also have common diseases, such as diabetes mellitus. The potential influence of prevalent diseases on the effectiveness of ASO drugs in silencing their target mRNAs remains largely unexplored. The present study utilized in vitro cell models to determine the impact on the efficacy of target reduction of two US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ASO drugs by intracellular glucose levels. Using inotersen and mipomersen as the FDA-approved ASO model drugs, this study demonstrated that a higher intracellular level of glucose resulted in decreased silencing efficacy of target reduction of inotersen and mipomersen in HepG2 cells. Reducing intracellular glucose levels in HepG2 cells, either by knocking down the glucose transporter GLUT2 or by treating with the antidiabetic drug metformin, reversed the decreased silencing efficacy of inotersen and mipomersen. This study brings to light the first indication about the significant impact of intracellular glucose levels on the silencing efficacy of the FDA-approved ASO drugs in an in vitro model.