Hepregen Launches First Rat Hepatopac™ Assay Kit
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At its first annual Mid-Atlantic User Group Meeting Hepregen Corporation has announced the commercial launch of the company's first rat HepatoPacT kit designed specifically for toxicology applications.
The kit contains one or more standard 96-well tissue culture plates featuring specially configured micro-patterned rat liver cells co-cultured with stromal cells.
The liver cells (hepatocytes) on these plates mirror the behavior of liver cells in live animals, enabling scientists to generate data that can be useful for prediction of toxic responses to chemical agents (including drug candidates) and improve design of preclinical experiments for drug development. The application-directed kit also provides a tool for the study of the mechanisms leading to such responses.
The kit is available with rat liver cells derived from either Sprague-Dawley or Wistar-Han rats, two strains of animal commonly used by pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical companies for assessing the potential toxicity of chemical compounds in product development.
Dr. Vincent Zurawski, Hepregen's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "This new kit is the second HepatoPacT application-directed kit that is focused on the in vitro toxicology market. The first, a human HepatoPacT kit, was introduced in March of this year. Now, scientists can compare test results using human and rat cells, which enables a more informed approach to the design of preclinical toxicology studies of drug candidates, and an ability to make better decisions about advancement of chemical agent product development programs in the cosmetics and chemical industries."
