Cholestatic liver injury is a complex adversity leading to the toxic accumulation of noxious bile salts in the liver and systemic circulation. Cholestasis can be instigated by a plethora of chemicals originating from several applicability domains. Current efforts fail to predict the cholestatic
Last updated on: 28-08-2025 - 11:18
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Partners: Ghent University (UGent)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
Fatty liver disease, which can result from various factors including chemical exposure, is an increasing clinical concern. A key event in its development is steatosis, referring to the accumulation of lipids within hepatocytes. To enable early detection of chemical-induced liver steatosis, we
Last updated on: 28-08-2025 - 11:18
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
This method describes a well-known optimised human in vitro model of drug-induced cholestasis. Cryopreserved primary human hepatocytes are cultured between two layers of extracellular matrix scaffold, which will delay dedifferentiation and allows to restore cell-extracellular matrix interactions.
Last updated on: 14-08-2025 - 13:14
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development
The method detects two facets of drug-induced cytotoxicity i.e. the intracellular accumulation of phospholipids and of neutral lipids, i.e. phospholipidosis and steatosis respectively. The assay makes use of a kit containing an aqueous, red-fluorescent formulation of labelled phospholipids (LipidTOX
Last updated on: 14-08-2025 - 13:13
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
This method assesses general cytotoxicity. Upon disruption of the cell membrane, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is released. LDH catalyzes the interconversion of pyruvate and lactate with concomitant interconversion of reduced (NADH) and oxidized (NAD+) nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. The principle
Last updated on: 14-08-2025 - 13:12
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
This method describes a very reliable and robust in vitro model for the screening of the cholestatic liability of drugs and other chemical entities. The 3D spheroids generated from primary human hepatocytes can be cultivated up to 28 days, allowing long-term exposures which can depict otherwise
Last updated on: 14-08-2025 - 13:09
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development
By the use of monolayer cultures as an in vitro system, the effects of drugs on CYP3A activity can be evaluated. It relies on the use of a luminogenic CYP3A substrate, namely luciferin-6′-pentafluorobenzylether (luciferin- PFBE). Upon biotransformation by CYP3A, luciferin-PFBE is converted into
Last updated on: 23-07-2025 - 09:53
Liver functionality can be monitored by the urea synthesis. In culture medium the measurement of urea synthesis relies on a chromogenic reagent that specifically forms a colored complex with urea. The concentration of this complex between urea, o-phthalaldehyde and N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine can
Last updated on: 23-07-2025 - 09:53
The present standard procedure describes a protocol for measuring the urea concentration in supernatant of human stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells. This procedure relies on a chromogenic reagent that forms a colored complex specifically with urea. The latter can be measured and is directly
Last updated on: 23-07-2025 - 09:52
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use, Internally validated
The effect of fluidics that mimic the blood flow in the liver sinusoids, is evaluated during the hepatic differentiation of human skin-derived precursors (hSKP). In a standard bi-dimensional (2D) cell culture system, hSKP are differentiated to hSKP-HPC for 24 days in static conditions. In a
Last updated on: 23-07-2025 - 09:51
Contact: Robim Rodrigues
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development
