You may have heard about the patented CryostaX^® format of hepatocyte pellets, but do you know why SEKISUI XenoTech and countless other researchers have made the switch from traditional hepatocyte preparations to pellets? Depending on who you ask the reasons will vary, from the needs of the study to simple convenience. In this post, let’s look at the primary factors so you can see for yourself why you should make the switch.

Which hepatocytes should you choose for your ADME Studies?

What are hepatocytes and why are they important?

Hepatocytes are the functional parenchymal cell of the liver. They are important for ADME/DMPK scientists because they’re the cells that carry out the bulk of metabolism for xenobiotic compounds and play a major role in detoxifying the body. Understanding how these functions affect your compound is essential in preclinical drug development.

Hepatocytes make up about 80% of the liver’s volume, but only represent approximately 60% of the total cell population. This basically means that they’re big, and because of their size and other physical properties, we can take advantage of these characteristics to purify them away from other cell types in the liver.

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).