Characterization of a long-term mouse primary liver 3D tissue model recapitulating innate-immune responses and drug-induced liver toxicity

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 9;15(7):e0235745. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235745. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Three-dimensional liver in vitro systems have recently attracted a lot of attention in drug development. These systems help to gain unprecedented insights into drug-induced liver injury (DILI), as they more closely reproduce liver biology, and as drug effects can be studied in isolated and controllable microenvironments. Many groups established human-based in vitro models but so far neglected the animal equivalent, although the availability of both models would be desirable. Animal in vitro models enable back- and forward translation of in vitro and in vivo findings, bridge the gap between rodent in vivo and human in vitro scenarios, and ultimately support the interpretation of data generated with preclinical species and humans. Since mice are often used in drug development and physiologically relevant in vitro systems are lacking, we established, for the first time, a mouse liver model that encompasses primary parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells with preserved viability and functionality over three weeks. Using our three-dimensional liver spheroids, we were able to predict the toxicity of known DILI compounds, demonstrated the interaction cascades between the different cell types and showed evidence of drug-induced steatosis and cholestasis. In summary, our mouse liver spheroids represent a valuable in vitro model that can be applied to study DILI findings, reported from mouse studies, and offers the potential to detect immune-mediated drug-induced liver toxicity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / toxicity
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / toxicity
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / immunology*
  • Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / metabolism
  • Hepatocytes / metabolism
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Liver / drug effects
  • Liver / pathology
  • Mice
  • Models, Biological*
  • Primary Cell Culture / methods*
  • Spheroids, Cellular* / cytology
  • Spheroids, Cellular* / immunology
  • Spheroids, Cellular* / metabolism

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by CTI grant 18024.1 PFLS-LS. The authors RN, ABR, and CBL are employees of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. at the Roche Innovation Center Basel, Switzerland. The funder provided support in the form of research material, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.