Protocol improvement and multisite validation of a digital soft agar colony formation assay for tumorigenic transformed cells intermingled in cell therapy products.

Background Aims: The administration of human cell-processed therapeutic products (hCTPs) is associated with a risk of tumorigenesis due to the transformed cellular contaminants. To mitigate this risk, these impurities should be detected using sensitive and validated assays. The digital soft agar colony formation (D-SAC) assay is an ultrasensitive in vitro test for detecting tumorigenic transformed cells in hCTPs.

Troglitazone Inhibits Bile Acid Amidation: A Possible Risk Factor for Liver Injury.

Troglitazone and pioglitazone were developed as thiazolidinedione-type antidiabetes drugs, but only troglitazone was withdrawn from the markets due to severe liver injury. As both troglitazone and its sulfate metabolite are strong inhibitors of the bile salt export pump (BSEP), troglitazone-induced bile acid (BA) retention is thought to be one of the underlying mechanisms of liver injury. However, pioglitazone is also a strong BSEP inhibitor, indicating other mechanisms may also be involved in troglitazone-induced BA retention.

Metabolic Activation of Cholestatic Drug-Induced Bile Acid-Dependent Toxicity in Human Sandwich-Cultured Hepatocytes.

We previously reported a cell-based toxicity assay using sandwich-cultured hepatocytes in combination with a titrated amount of human bile acid (BA) species. In this assay, test compound-induced inhibition of BA efflux from sandwich-cultured hepatocytes leads to BA-dependent cell toxicity (BA, i.e.

Basal efflux of bile acids contributes to drug-induced bile acid-dependent hepatocyte toxicity in rat sandwich-cultured hepatocytes.

The bile salt export pump (BSEP or Bsep) functions as an apical transporter to eliminate bile acids (BAs) from hepatocytes into the bile. BSEP or Bsep inhibitors engender BA retention, suggested as an underlying mechanism of cholestatic drug-induced liver injury. We previously reported a method to evaluate BSEP-mediated BA-dependent hepatocyte toxicity by using sandwich-cultured hepatocytes (SCHs).

Bile salt export pump inhibitors are associated with bile acid-dependent drug-induced toxicity in sandwich-cultured hepatocytes.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major reason for the dropout of candidate compounds from drug testing and the withdrawal of pharmaceuticals from clinical use. Among the various mechanisms of liver injury, the accumulation of bile acids (BAs) within hepatocytes is thought to be a primary mechanism for the development of DILI. Although bile salt export pump (BSEP) dysfunction is considered a susceptibility factor for DILI, little is known about the relationship between drug-induced BSEP dysfunction and BA-dependent hepatotoxicity.