Test Applications in an Organotypic Environment A Novel Test Concept for In Vitro Pharmacotoxicology	TAO Home
TAO Home The Concept Test Design Human Tissue Highlights Contact Overview (PDF)			Why use tissues for drug testing? Cell cultures have gained a long-standing recognition as the initial approach within drug verification procedures. However, experience has also shown that new agents, when tested in cell cultures, may not show any toxicity, whereas following animal trials reveal unexpected, severe side effects. These contradictory results demand further attention. While cell cultures have demonstrated enormous value in target-based pharmacological approaches, a significant "analytical gap" remains when the task is to analyse drug effects in differentiated tissue. TAO aims to address this challenge by providing culture conditions that maintain differentiated tissue in vitro. The animal and human organism consist of a multitude of diverse cell types, interrelated by complex metabolic and signalling processes. Cell culture tests usually consist of a single cell type. Thus, the uptake, effect and degradation behaviour of a drug in cell culture do not necessarily resemble the responses when the drug is administered to tissues, organs or whole organisms. A drug that appears non-toxic to one cell type may have serious effects on other cells present in a tissue. Cell culture tests often employ immortalised cells. Through the process of immortalisation, these cells lose several physiological features that characterise the differentiated state of the cells in an organ. A broad variety of tissues from many species - including human - can be employed in our new tissue culture test concept. The use of tissue from the prospective target organism greatly improves the transferability of in vitro test results.
			Interested to learn more about TAO ?	Back to Top
			Contact and Inquiries Inquiries regarding the TAO in vitro tissue culture test concept or licensing opportunities are kindly requested. Find out more about the author's scientific expertise. Sabine Kloth, PhD Goldshausener Str. 1a D-85417 Marzling GERMANY Phone: +49-8161-65968
			German and US Patents © 2003 Sabine Kloth