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Study Liver Cytochrome P450 3A4 Inhibition and Hepatotoxicity Using DMSO-Differentiated HuH-7 Cells
1Division of Toxicology, Office of Applied Research and Safety Assessment, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Laurel, MD, USA. yitong.liu@fda.hhs.gov.
Abstract:
Metabolically competent, inexpensive, and robust in vitro cell models are needed for studying liver drug-metabolizing enzymes and hepatotoxicity. Human hepatoma HuH-7 cells develop into a differentiated in vitro model resembling primary human hepatocytes after a 2-week dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) treatment. DMSO-differentiated HuH-7 cells express elevated cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) enzyme gene expression and activity compared to untreated HuH-7 cells. This cell model could be used to study CYP3A4 inhibition by reversible and time-dependent inhibitors, such as drugs, food ingredients, and environmental chemicals. The DMSO-differentiated HuH-7 model is also a suitable tool for investigating hepatotoxicity. This chapter describes a detailed methodology for developing DMSO-differentiated HuH-7 cells, which are subsequently used for CYP3A4 inhibition and hepatotoxicity studies.
