Pooled human hepatocytes are a preferred test system in many drug discovery and development applications requiring intact cellular systems for in vitro testing. Intact hepatocytes contain the major hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes and co-factors required to effectively evaluate the metabolism and potential drug-drug interactions of drug candidates.

Over the last decade, improvements in cryopreservation technologies have made using cryopreserved human hepatocytes more convenient. Pooled cryopreserved hepatocytes reduce the inter-individual differences and polymorphic distribution of liver enzymes. However, it’s crucial to carefully select a pool according to its performance but also the application it is to be used for.

Following up on my series of posts based on Dr Chris Bohl’s work at Sekisui Xenotech, in this post I invite you to take a look at the work he has published, together with Dr Christopher Seib, Maciej Czerwinski, Zell Woodworth and David Buckley, Ph.D., illustrating the characterization of isolated human liver lysosomes, and validating them as test systems for in vitro assessment of catabolic stability of biologics drugs entering the cell by the endosomal–lysosomal pathway.

In a few forthcoming posts, I’d like to share several short articles published by Dr Chris Bohl of Sekisui Xenotech, a technical expert in the field of ADME-Tox tools and applications. I feel they may be of special interest to researchers working in the field of ADME-Tox studies.

Today, we’ll take a look at compounds that exhibit high metabolic stability in hepatocytes and subcellular fractions (S9, microsomes and cytosol), as these can be a challenge for ADME scientists.

Sekisui Xenotech’s Research BioBank provides you with normal and diseased human liver tissue samples for scientific investigation. Tissues are collected with the initial intent for transplant, thus making them perfect candidates to advance basic medical science and contribute to the development of new treatments.

The care taken to preserve viability of the tissue intended for transplantation distinguishes these Research Biobank specimens from samples collected at a typical post-mortem, usually compromised by several hours of a warm ischemia. So what are the other benefits of the biobank?