Abstract

3D Human Liver Spheroids for In Vitro Liver Toxicity Testing

Feng Li, Senior Scientist, Development, Corning Life Sciences

3D liver spheroids can be made from primary human hepatocytes (PHH) with or without other liver cell types. For 3D liver spheroid assay development, we have evaluated the impact of donor variations on spheroid formation and stability in vitro. Our results show that PHH lots need to be pre-tested for 3D spheroid culture and there exist variations in spheroid formation time and stability among different donor lots. Using a large set of 100 compounds, PHH liver spheroids are shown to significantly improve the prediction accuracy of drug induced liver toxicity comparing to conventional system. Furthermore, 3D spheroid culture qualified PHH can be used to generate co-culture liver spheroids with other liver cell types such as Primary human Kupffer cells. As 3D liver spheroid models are being adopted by more industry users, we’d like to share our experience working with liver spheroids and toxicity test results to facilitate a conversation on how to standardize 3D liver spheroid models for in vitro assays.