Loss of acinar differentiation drives pancreatic cancer. An established human in vitro experimental model is used in our lab to study this process. Pancreatic exocrine cells from human donors are placed in suspension culture in Advanced RPMI medium supplemented with 5% heat-inactivated fetal bovine

Last updated on: 16-03-2022 - 14:19

Contact: Elyne Backx
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
The neutral red uptake assay is a cell viability assay that allows in vitro quantification of xenobiotic-induced cytotoxicity. The assay relies on the ability of living cells to incorporate and bind neutral red, a weak cationic dye, in lysosomes. As such, cytotoxicity is expressed as a concentration

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:04

Contact: Robim Rodrigues
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal, Validated by an external party (e.g. OECD, EURL ECVAM,…)
Albumin secretion in the supernatant of in vitro cultures can be measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The assay is based upon a quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay technique and measures albumin in the culture medium of primary hepatocytes and/or hepatocyte like cells. Standards

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Steven Branson
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
This method provides a new and easy to standardize enzymatic isolation protocol to obtain human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hUC-MSCs). hUC-MSCs are obtained within 3 hours and the isolation method provides a minimal risk of bacterial contamination. The so-obtained hUC-MSCs were

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Karolien Buyl
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Published in peer reviewed journal
Human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hUC-MSCs) express several key liver-specific transcription factors as well as hepatic progenitor markers. However, they still lack the hepatocyte nuclear factors 1-alpha (HNF1a) and 4-alpha (HNF4a), indispensable for their reprogramming towards

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Karolien Buyl
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: Still in development
HepG2 is a human hepatoma derived cell line, which are epithelial in morphology. It was established from liver tissue of a 15-year-old Caucasian male with a well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma. The HepG2 cell line is one of the most used human liver-based in vitro models. The cells secrete

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Anja Heymans
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
Cryopreserved differentiated HepaRG cells (obtained from Biopredic International) are derived from a human hepatocellular carcinoma. These cells are an unique in vitro tool that provides reproducible results and exhibit many characteristics of primary human hepatocytes such as morphology, expression

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Anja Heymans
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
In this method, we use rabbit monoclonal antibodies that are produced in vitro to identify xenografted human stem cell-derived hepatocytes in frozen murine liver slices. These recombinant antibodies were produced in vitro by cloning antibody genes for immune-specific heavy and light antibody chains

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Joery De Kock
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use
Rat liver epithelial cells are cultivated at 100% confluency on 100 µg/mL rat tail collagen type I coated culture dishes in base medium and sequentially exposed to hepatogenic growth factors and cytokines. Base medium consisted of William’s E medium without glutamine supplemented with 7.33 IE/mL

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Joery De Kock
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use, Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal
Rat liver epithelial cells (rLEC) can be isolated from 8-day old male Sprague-Dawley rats. Briefly, small fragments of neonatal rat livers are incubated for 15 minutes with 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazine-ethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffered trypsin solution [0.25% (v/v)] and washed twice with

Last updated on: 28-02-2022 - 11:02

Contact: Joery De Kock
Organisation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Status: History of use, Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal