• Drug induced liver injury (DILI) is a major cause of drug failure, both during clinical trials and after introduction to the market. A recent analysis of AstraZeneca project closures due to safety issues shows that 14% of preclinical failures and 12% of clinical failures were due to problems caused in the liver ¹.

• Existing in vitro tests do not accurately mimic the physiological environment of the in vivo liver. One important missing factor is the presence of interstitial flow.

• Kirkstall’s Quasi Vivo® system allows the application of physiologically relevant flow rates. Evidence shows that key detoxification genes are up-regulated under flow conditions ², liver organoids display typical liver morphology ³ and respond as expected to viability-decreasing compounds ⁴.

Along with our flow systems and pumps, we also provide a complete training and support package to help you through your experiments, from planning to execution. Quasi Vivo® is compatible with many 3D cell culture protocols, and can be integrated into your laboratory with ease.

This advanced in vitro technique is physiologically relevant, making your data more applicable to the human situation.

1. Cook, D. et al. Lessons learned from the fate of AstraZeneca’s drug pipeline: a five-dimensional framework. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 13, 419–31 (2014).

2. Vinci, B. et al. Modular bioreactor for primary human hepatocyte culture: Medium flow stimulates expression and activity of detoxification genes. Biotechnol. J. 6, 554–564 (2011).

3. Ramachandran, S. D. et al. In vitro generation of functional liver organoid-like structures using adult human cells. PLoS One 10, 1–14 (2015).

4. Rashidi, H., Alhaque, S., Szkolnicka, D., Flint, O. & Hay, D. C. Fluid shear stress modulation of hepatocyte-like cell function. Arch. Toxicol. 3–7 (2016). doi:10.1007/s00204-016-1689-8