Follow-up to the pre-validation of a harmonised protocol for assessment of CYP induction responses in freshly isolated and cryopreserved human hepatocytes with respect to culture format, treatment, positive reference inducers and incubation conditions

We have compared induction responses of human hepatocytes to known inducers of CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C and CYP3A4/5 to determine whether the culture format, treatment regimen and/or substrate incubation conditions affected the outcome. CYP induction responses to prototypical inducers were equivalent regardless of pre-culture time (24 h or 48 h), plate format (60 mm or 24-well plates) used or whether CYP activities were measured in microsomes or whole cell monolayers. Fold-induction of CYP3A4/5 by 1000 μM PB and 10 μM RIF were equivalent. In contrast, the fold-induction of CYP2B6 by PB was 3-fold higher that by 10 μM RIF. In addition to inducing CYP1A2, 50 μM OME also induced CYP3A4/5 in 50% of the donors tested. CYP2B6 was induced in 14 out of 21 donors by BNF; however CYP3A4/5 was unaffected by BNF in these donors. In order to confirm that donor-to-donor variation was not due to inter-laboratory differences, the induction responses of 5 different batches of cryopreserved human hepatocytes were compared in two different laboratories. The induction of CYP1A2, CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 measured in our laboratory were equivalent to those obtained by the commercial companies, proving good between-laboratory reproducibility.In conclusion, there is some flexibility in the treatment and incubation protocols for classical CYP induction assays on human hepatocytes. Both RIF and PB are suitable positive control inducers of CYP3A4/5 but PB may be more appropriate for CYP2B6 induction. BNF may be more appropriate for CYP1A2 induction than OME since, in contrast to the latter, it does not induce CYP3A4. Induction responses using hepatocytes from the same donor but in different labs can be expected to be similar. The good reproducibility of induction responses between laboratories using cryopreserved hepatocytes underlines the usefulness of these cells for these types of studies.