PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Miyako Sudo
AU  - Mitsuhiro Nishihara
AU  - Junzo Takahashi
AU  - Satoru Asahi
TI  - Long term stability of cryopreserved human hepatocytes; evaluation of phase I and II drug metabolizing enzyme activities and CYP3A4/5 induction for more than a decade
AID  - 10.1124/dmd.117.075234
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - Drug Metabolism and Disposition
PG  - dmd.117.075234
4099  - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2017/04/13/dmd.117.075234.short
4100  - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2017/04/13/dmd.117.075234.full
AB  - We evaluated the long term stability of hepatocytes stored in vapor phase of liquid nitrogen for their viability, cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2 activity, CYP3A4/5 activity, uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) activity, sulfotransferase (SULT) activity, and CYP3A4/5 induction during 14 years of preservation. No substantial degradation of viability, CYP1A2 activity, UGT activity, or CYP3A4/5 induction was observed. CYP3A4/5 activity showed a slight decrease after 7 years of storage, and SULT activity gradually decreased during storage, although substantial activities remained even after 14 years. These results indicate that cryopreserved human hepatocytes can be stored stably for more than a decade with little or no change in viability, activity of drug metabolizing enzymes, or CYP3A4/5 induction, and can be widely applicable to qualitative research in drug metabolism.