Human Hepatocytes (HHpC) are isolated from the normal livers of single donors. After isolation, the cells are immediately cryopreserved and then intensively quality tested. Test criteria are cell viability, cell adherence efficiency, phase I metabolism, phase II metabolism, and albumin synthesis. The cell adherence efficiency is at least 50%.
The liver is the main metabolic organ in the body performing glycolysis, glycogenesis, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, and ureagenesis. In addition, it also regulates the blood sugar level. Furthermore, hepatocytes eliminate toxic substances soon after absorption since the nutrition rich blood from the gastro-intestinal system first has to pass the liver. This detoxification consists of phase I and phase II reactions. The most important phase I enzyme system is the cytochrome P450 system. Consequently, cultured human hepatocytes are perfectly suited for in vitro metabolism and toxicity/detoxification studies prior to preclinical or clinical tests.
Note: For culturing Hepatocytes, Collagen type I coated culture vessels are necessary. Under standard in vitro cell culture conditions, mature human hepatocytes usually do not survive for longer than 10-14 days and do not proliferate.
