Development of an in vitro co-culture system to assess the DILI-related potential of drugs

Introduction: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the main reason for the withdrawal of drugs from the pharmaceutical market due to unpredictable severe toxic side effects. DILI can not be sufficiently explained by the direct toxicity of a drug on hepatocytes but it also involves the interaction of hepatocytes with non-parenchymal cells (NPC). For the study of the effects of xenobiotics on liver metabolism, the co-culture of human hepatic cells with monocytic human THP-1 cells was established and acetaminophen (AAP) was used as a model compound. AAP is a famous analgesic whose reactive intermediate N-acetyl-p-be…