To assess hepatotoxicity
Liver tissues will start printing on a 4D bioprinter
France, the cities of Paris and Pessac. Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company, and Poietis, a leader in the production of bioprinted living tissues, have announced the launch of a research partnership using 4D bioprinting technology to create liver tissues.
The goal of the partnership is to increase the effectiveness of detecting medicinal liver lesions already at the preclinical research phase. Lesions of this type occur rarely, but have serious consequences for patients. The existing preclinical models do not allow to estimate the hepatotoxic potential of drugs with sufficient accuracy. In addition to animal models, models based on human cell cultures are used for research, but their use in toxicology is limited due to the insufficient degree of complexity, as well as the fragility of many of them. The innovative 4D bioprinting technology created by Poiti makes it possible to overcome these limitations.
The partnership between the companies has great prospects. Thus, human liver tissue will be printed on the bioprinter, which contains lines of liver cells and immunocompetent human cells. It has a predetermined structure that mimics human liver tissue in vitro.
According to Nancy Claude, Director of the preclinical Research Division of Servier, this project will expand the understanding of the mechanisms of hepatotoxicity and will become a source of new data that will allow detecting any undesirable effects of the drugs being developed in the shortest possible time. In her opinion, thanks to this project, the number of adverse side effects on liver function that drugs can have should decrease already at the preclinical research phase.
Hélène Aerts, head of Servier's in vitro Biologie platform, believes that the new possibility of including different cell types into a single extracellular matrix will allow the micro-tissue to be recreated using this method for in vitro tests of the inflammatory response and the phenomenon of tissue remodeling.
Bruno Brisson, CEO and Business Development Director of Poietis, said: "We are very pleased to announce the start of a partnership with Servier. The preclinical research specialists in this company are highly qualified in the study of toxicity in vitro using a variety of tools. We are very proud to have become Servier's partner. Our planned developments will allow us to achieve a more accurate result in accordance with the requirements for the use of new tools, including morphogenesis control and standardization."
Dr. Fabien Guillemot, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Poietis, added: "This partnership is long-term and is aimed at creating liver tissue using bioprinting technology, this is an important step towards the introduction of the 4D bioprinting method in the pharmaceutical industry. The scientific partnership with Servier, concluded after our interaction with the Catholic University of Leuven in the field of cartilage bioprinting, corresponds to Poiti's strategy aimed at the widespread use of this method in dermatocosmetology."