Hepregen, a developer of next generation HepatoPac and HepatoMune cell-based in vitro assay products, has announced the commercial launch of its first HepatoPac kit, designed specifically for use in evaluating metabolic turnover of chemicals in the human liver.

The kit contains one or more standard 96-well tissue culture plates featuring specially configured micro-patterned human liver cells co-cultured with stromal cells. The liver cells (hepatocytes) on these plates remain metabolically active for up to 35 days.

Using this plug-in-ready kit, industrial product developers can accurately evaluate metabolic turnover of chemicals regardless of whether they are rapidly or very slowly metabolized by the liver.

Hepregen CEO Dr Vincent Zurawski said during the product development process, data generated from this new HepatoPac kit was used to predict drug clearance from the circulation with a high degree of in vitro/in vivo correlation when compared to clinical findings.

"The launch of this new kit demonstrates Hepregen’s commitment to providing its customers with unique problem-solving tools," Dr Zurawski added.

"The launch adds another product to the Company’s portfolio, which includes human, rat, monkey, human triple-donor and rat-human HepatoPac application-directed kits for metabolite identification and profiling."