Sekisui XenoTech have announced the addition of Rodent Hepatocytes to their patented CryostaX® product line.

The CryostaX® in vitro drug discovery and preclinical drug development test system is continuously expanding with these new pooled Sprague-Dawley rat hepatocytes  released in July, and pooled CD-1 mouse hepatocytes soon to be launched.

CryostaX® hepatocytes are liver cells that are prepared using a patented process that produces unique cryopreserved cell pellets. This single-freeze preparation process provides greater convenience to researchers, versatile pooling options, and minimizes freeze-thaw injury to the cells, which promotes high viability, cell yield and enzymatic activity for longer-term, consistent test results. What else makes Cryostax a popular choice for researchers?

Kupffer primary cells are macrophages endogenous to the liver which have the ability to modulate hepatic inflammation and injury associated with various pathophysiologies and toxicities. Pro-inflammatory cytokines released by activated Kupffer cells, such as TNF-α and IL-6, are associated with up-regulation of acute-phase response proteins and suppression of CYP enzymes. For new biological entities, particularly immunomodulators, evaluating the potential for Kupffer cell activation is an emerging concept in preclinical development. Kupffer cells are estimated to comprise approximately 4-8% of total liver cell content and approximately 20% of non-parenchymal cells (Raccanelli and Rehermann, 2006).

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?