The liver as the main metabolic organ performs glycolysis, glycogenesis, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, and ureagenesis. It consists of mainly hepatocytes, which play a key role in elimination of toxic substances. Therefore, cultured human hepatocytes are suited for in vitro metabolism and detoxification studies.

Medicyte's upcyte^® Hepatocytes are genetically engineered human cell strains, derived from single donor primary cells. Therefore they provide you with virtually unlimited cell numbers of one lot/donor.

We can offer you 2000+ vials per donor – data from different studies can be compared while working with the same donor.

Similar sensitivity to primary cells during screening phases can exclude compounds at an early stage, means toxic compounds do not reach animal testing stages. Safe life and money!

All lots have the capability of urea secretion at working cell bank stage and a plateability rate of minimum 90% in all stages.

Upcyte^® Hepatocytes are provided in 2 ml cryo-vials with a minimum of 5x10⁶ frozen cells. Seeding densities can vary according to your endpoint assay.

If you need any help – be it theoretical or practical, our specialists are happy to help and show you at your lab handling of upcyte^® Hepatocytes.

To choose the right donor (LOT#) for your specific application, please look it up in our characterization table.

Please note: these cells are already at a later state in proliferation terms. You can plate the cells at a density as low as 30% confluence to achieve 100% confluence after 4 days. Further expansion will lead to the cells expressing senescence genes and the phenotype is lost. If you would like to grow your own working cell bank, we also offer cryopreserved upcyte^® Hepatocytes at the master cell bank stage under a license.

Upcyte^® Hepatocytes have been tested at each expansion state for:

• Cell morphology
• Viable recovery (~70% of the original viable cells frozen are recovered after thawing)
• >90 % plateability
• Markers: CK8⁺, CK18⁺; HSA⁺, AAT⁺, AFP^-
• Capability of glycogen storage (PAS staining)
• Inducible CYP activities

Upcyte^® Hepatocytes have been tested at working cell bank stage:

• Urea secretion (basal and stimulated)

Tested Applications:

• CYP3A4 Induction
• Genotoxicity
• Basal toxicity (hepatotoxic and non-hepatotoxic compounds)
• Cell-specific toxicity (e. g. compounds requiring drug transporters)
• CYP3A4-mediated toxicity

For each product a protocol for use and a certificate of analysis will be delivered. All cells have been tested for the absence of CMV, HIV, Hepatitis B and C and microbial contaminants (fungi, bacteria and mycoplasma). They can be used in BSL1 laboratory or higher.

Nevertheless, the cells - like all products of human origin - should be handled as potentially infectious. No test procedure can completely guarantee the absence of infectious agents.

For cryopreserved upcyte^® hepatocyte vials from our master cell bank, please inquire here.