A newin vitroapproach for the simultaneous determination of phase I and phase II enzymatic activities of human hepatocyte preparations
Primary hepatocytes are still the best qualified in vitro system to anticipate drug metabolism in man. Recent advances in hepatocytes cryopreservation have notably increased their use not only for drug metabolism studies, but also for other applications such as cell transplantation. Evaluation of the drug-metabolizing competence of each hepatocytes preparation is needed. To date, the metabolic characterization of hepatocytes preparations relies on the assessment of phase I activities and the role of phase II enzymes receives little attention. A novel approach for the rapid assessment of the metabolic functionality of hepatocytes has been developed. A five-probe cocktail was used to simultan…
Functional assessment of the quality of human hepatocyte preparations for cell transplantation.
Hepatocyte transplantation is an alternative therapy to orthotopic liver transplantation for the treatment of liver diseases. Good quality freshly isolated or cryopreserved human hepatocytes are needed for clinical transplantation. However, isolation, cryopreservation, and thawing processes can seriously impair hepatocyte viability and functionality. The aim of the present study was to develop a fast and sensitive procedure to estimate the quality of hepatocyte preparations prior to clinical cell infusion. To this end, cell viability, attachment efficiency, and metabolic competence (urea synthesis and drug-metabolizing P450 activities) were selected as objective criteria. Viability of hepat…
Metabolomics discloses donor liver biomarkers associated with early allograft dysfunction
Background & Aims Early allograft dysfunction (EAD) dramatically influences graft and patient outcome after orthotopic liver transplantation and its incidence is strongly determined by donor liver quality. Nevertheless, objective biomarkers, which can assess graft quality and anticipate organ function, are still lacking. This study aims to investigate whether there is a preoperative donor liver metabolomic biosignature associated with EAD. Methods A comprehensive metabolomic profiling of 124 donor liver biopsies collected before transplantation was performed by mass spectrometry coupled to liquid chromatography. Donor liver grafts were classified into two groups: showing EAD and immediate g…