Drug-induced phospholipidosis (DIPL) is a metabolic disorder characterized by an excessive intracellular accumulation of phospholipids caused by cationic drugs. Hepatic cells derived from human skin are evaluated as an in vitro model to investigate DIPL and its mechanisms. Human skin stem cells

Last updated on: 20-02-2024 - 11:27

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) networks are versatile tools in toxicology and risk assessment that capture and visualize mechanisms driving toxicity originating from various data sources. They share a common structure consisting of a set of molecular initiating events and key events, connected by key

Last updated on: 20-02-2024 - 09:27

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
Drug-induced intrahepatic cholestasis (DIC) is a main type of hepatic toxicity that is challenging to predict in early drug development stages. Preclinical animal studies often fail to detect DIC in humans. In vitro toxicogenomics assays using human liver cells have become a practical approach to

Last updated on: 15-02-2024 - 11:59

Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal
Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare inborn error of metabolism caused by a defective homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD), an enzyme involved in the tyrosine degradation pathway. Loss of HGD function leads to the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA) in connective body tissues in a process called

Last updated on: 06-12-2023 - 14:45

Contact: Sien Lequeue
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Partners: RWTH Aachen
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
Cultivated liver cells are fixed with 4% (w/v) paraformaldehyde (PFA) for 10 minutes at room temperature and subsequently incubated for 15 minutes with 100 mM glycin solution, used to saturate reactive groups generated after PFA fixation. These cells are subsequently incubated for 10 minutes with 1%

Last updated on: 16-12-2022 - 19:40

Contact: Joery De Kock
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use, Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal
E. coli is one of the organisms of choice for the production of recombinant proteins. DH5 alpha cells are commonly used for maintenance, propagation and mutation, whilst BL21(DE3) and C43(DE3) are mainly used for expression of the transgene. The advantage of C43(DE3) is that is used to produce

Last updated on: 03-11-2022 - 07:25

Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development, History of use, Internally validated
Studying spermatogenesis in situ has led to the understanding that the 3D reorganization of testicular cells into an interstitial and tubular compartment is of enormous importance for germ cell differentiation. We will rely on 3D bioprinting technology which gives control over cell deposition and

Last updated on: 06-10-2022 - 14:11

Contact: Guillaume Richer
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development, Published in peer reviewed journal
For therapeutic or reporter molecules to be effective for therapy or imaging applications, proper accumulation of the compounds in the tissue of interest is required, with minimal accumulation in undesired organs to avoid toxic side-effects and increase bioavailability. After initial in vitro

Last updated on: 09-08-2022 - 16:34

Contact: Sophie Hernot
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
A battery of in vitro genotoxicity assays is currently used to detect agents with DNA damaging and carcinogenic potential. Although the sensitivity of this battery of genotoxicity assays is high, the specificity is low (“false positive hit”), especially with the mammalian cell-based assay, compared

Last updated on: 11-07-2022 - 15:51

Contact: Marc Audebert
Organisation: Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRAE)
Status: History of use, Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal, Currently submitted for further validation by an external party (e.g. OECD, EURL ECVAM,…)
This method uses human skin-derived precursors (hSKP) differentiated towards hepatic cells (hSKP-HPC) as a hepatic in vitro model. Exposure of these cells for 24 hours to sub-cytotoxic concentrations of acetaminophen, which is a reference hepatotoxicant, induced specific cellular responses in a

Last updated on: 26-05-2022 - 10:39

Contact: Robim Rodrigues
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal