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Abstract
Engineering the liver in vitro is promising to provide functional replacement for
patients with liver failure, or tissue models for drug metabolism and toxicity analysis.
In this study, we describe a microfluidics-based biomimetic approach for the fabrication
of an in vitro 3D liver lobule-like microtissue composed of a radially patterned hepatic
cord-like network and an intrinsic hepatic sinusoid-like network. The hepatic enzyme
assay showed that the 3D biomimetic microtissue maintained high basal CYP-1A1/2 and
UGT activities, responded dynamically to enzyme induction/inhibition, and preserved
great hepatic capacity of drug metabolism. Using the established biomimetic microtissue,
the potential adverse drug reactions that induced liver injury were successfully analyzed
via drug-drug interactions of clinical pharmaceuticals. The results showed that predosed
pharmaceuticals which agitated CYP-1A1/2 and/or UGT activities would alter the toxic
effect of the subsequently administrated drug. All the results validated the utility
of the established biomimetic microtissue in toxicological studies in vitro. Also,
we anticipate the microfluidics-based bioengineering strategy would benefit liver
tissue engineering and liver physiology/pathophysiology studies, as well as in vitro
assessment of drug-induced hepatotoxicity.