Genomics and proteomics analysis of cultured primary rat hepatocytes.

The use of animal models in pharmaceutical research is a costly and sometimes misleading method of generating toxicity data and hence predicting human safety. Therefore, in vitro test systems, such as primary rat hepatocytes, and the developing genomics and proteomics technologies, are playing an increasingly important role in toxicological research. Gene and protein expression analysis were investigated in a time series (up to 5 days) of primary rat hepatocytes cultured on collagen coated dishes.

How omics technologies can contribute to the '3R' principles by introducing new strategies in animal testing.

In Europe, in light of ethical, political and commercial pressure, every effort should be made to replace animals with alternatives (e.g. in vitro models), to reduce the number of animals used in experiments to a minimum and to refine current testing strategies in a way that ensures animals undergo minimum pain and distress.

Comparison of software tools to improve the detection of carcinogen induced changes in the rat liver proteome by analyzing SELDI-TOF-MS spectra.

A common animal model of chemical hepatocarcinogenesis was used to demonstrate the potential identification of carcinogenicity related protein signatures/biomarkers. Therefore, an animal study in which rats were treated with the known liver carcinogen N-nitrosomorpholine (NNM) or the corresponding vehicle was evaluated. Histopathological investigation as well as SELDI-TOF-MS analysis was performed.