Construction of a bile canaliculus-like structure using sandwich-cultured cryopreserved human hepatocytes for predicting biliary excretion of food-derived compounds in vitro

Abstract

The prediction of biliary excretion is one of the important factors for evaluating the pharmacokinetics and toxicities of pharmaceutical and food-derived compounds in humans. As the properties of biliary excretions differ among species, a highly predictive in vitro method for human biliary excretion is required. Although cryopreserved human hepatocytes have been widely used for this purpose, it is challenging to form functional and mesh-patterned bile canaliculi resembling those in the human body. Recently, Horiuchi et al. reported a new culture method that constructs bile canaliculi-like structures using human iPS cell-derived hepatocytes and commercially available long-term culture medium¹⁾. In this presentation, we would like to introduce the applicability of the culture method to cryopreserved human hepatocytes and discuss its potential to predict the biliary excretion by using known biliary excreted compounds and 21 types of food-related compounds.

Reference: 1) Horiuchi et al. (2022) Sci. Rep., 12: 15192.