Technology basis
The founders of PRIMACYT Cell Culture Technology GmbH have developed a unique serum-free long-term culture system for human hepatocytes. At present, this culture system is further characterized and will be customized for new research projects.
At PRIMACYT we substitute sera of newborn or fetal animals in our cell cultures for chemically defined serum-free media. In contrast to common cell cultures, our hepatocytes are already plated in a chemically defined serum-free medium.
At PRIMACYT we use growth factors that allow us to culture functional hepatocytes for several weeks. Thereby, we are trying to overcome the sparse availability of human hepatocytes. By this means human hepatocytes become reliable biosensors. The close resemblance of human hepatocytes to the human in vivo condition, makes this culture system superior to any other cell culture model.
With HHMM (Human Hepatocyte Maintenance Medium) we have developed a novel medium, which allows long-term culturing of functional human hepatocytes.
After hepatocytes have adapted to culture conditions their metabolic rates (here: albumin and urea secretion) remain constant for a time-frame of approximately 8-10 days.
Growth Factors: Improved function and constant viability
Addition of HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) and EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) to HHMM further improves the hepatocellular functionality. For instance, albumin and urea secretion are increased to higher levels and remain stable for a long period of time, while cellular viability, as detected by LDH release into the culture medium, is not altered by growth factors.
HEPAC²
HEPAC² is a human hepatocyte cell culture system developed, standardized and validated by PRIMACYT.
HEPAC² is a unique culture system that allows the repeated use of human hepatocytes as biosensors. After the first round of incubation with the test item the hepatocytes are allowed to recover and may be used for several more experiments.
Thereby, the sparse availability of human donors can be overcome and the costs for human liver cell cultures are reduced. In addition, new pharmaceutical ingredients may be tested at different concentrations and in different combinations with other drugs and active compounds within the same hepatocyte culture. This will increase the safety of drug testing with humans.
By this means PRIMACYT overcomes a weakness of cells available until now. Human hepatocyte become reliable biosensors, which, due to their close proximity to human in vivo conditions, are superior to experimental models that have commonly been used so far.
As a first user, Bionas GmbH in Rostock has successfully combined this culture system with its own sensor chip technology for the analysis of active compounds and new drugs.
Literature:
Anticancer drug cis-4-hydroxy-L-proline: Correlation of preclinical toxicology with clinical parameters of liver function (PDF-Download)
Use of a Standardized and Validated Long-term Human Hepatocyte Culture System for Repetitive Analyses of Drugs: Repeated Administrations of Acetaminophen reduces Albumin and Urea Secretion (PDF-Download)
In Vitro System for the Prediction of Hepatotoxic Effects in Primary Hepatocytes (PDF-Download)
The founders of PRIMACYT Cell Culture Technology GmbH have developed a unique serum-free long-term culture system for human hepatocytes. At present, this culture system is further characterized and will be customized for new research projects.
At PRIMACYT we substitute sera of newborn or fetal animals in our cell cultures for chemically defined serum-free media. In contrast to common cell cultures, our hepatocytes are already plated in a chemically defined serum-free medium.
At PRIMACYT we use growth factors that allow us to culture functional hepatocytes for several weeks. Thereby, we are trying to overcome the sparse availability of human hepatocytes. By this means human hepatocytes become reliable biosensors. The close resemblance of human hepatocytes to the human in vivo condition, makes this culture system superior to any other cell culture model.
With HHMM (Human Hepatocyte Maintenance Medium) we have developed a novel medium, which allows long-term culturing of functional human hepatocytes.
After hepatocytes have adapted to culture conditions their metabolic rates (here: albumin and urea secretion) remain constant for a time-frame of approximately 8-10 days.
Growth Factors: Improved function and constant viability
Addition of HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) and EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) to HHMM further improves the hepatocellular functionality. For instance, albumin and urea secretion are increased to higher levels and remain stable for a long period of time, while cellular viability, as detected by LDH release into the culture medium, is not altered by growth factors.
HEPAC²
HEPAC² is a human hepatocyte cell culture system developed, standardized and validated by PRIMACYT.
HEPAC² is a unique culture system that allows the repeated use of human hepatocytes as biosensors. After the first round of incubation with the test item the hepatocytes are allowed to recover and may be used for several more experiments.
Thereby, the sparse availability of human donors can be overcome and the costs for human liver cell cultures are reduced. In addition, new pharmaceutical ingredients may be tested at different concentrations and in different combinations with other drugs and active compounds within the same hepatocyte culture. This will increase the safety of drug testing with humans.
By this means PRIMACYT overcomes a weakness of cells available until now. Human hepatocyte become reliable biosensors, which, due to their close proximity to human in vivo conditions, are superior to experimental models that have commonly been used so far.
As a first user, Bionas GmbH in Rostock has successfully combined this culture system with its own sensor chip technology for the analysis of active compounds and new drugs.
Literature:
Anticancer drug cis-4-hydroxy-L-proline: Correlation of preclinical toxicology with clinical parameters of liver function (PDF-Download)
Use of a Standardized and Validated Long-term Human Hepatocyte Culture System for Repetitive Analyses of Drugs: Repeated Administrations of Acetaminophen reduces Albumin and Urea Secretion (PDF-Download)
In Vitro System for the Prediction of Hepatotoxic Effects in Primary Hepatocytes (PDF-Download)
Growth factors improve hepatocyte-specific function
Electron micrograph of human hepatocytes
Induction of cytochrome P4503A4 in human hepatocytes
RNA expression pattern in human hepatocyte cultures