Visikol, a leading provider of advanced cell culture assay services, has recently expanded its portfolio of in vitro assays through the introduction of precision cut tissue slice models using Precisionary Instruments’s Compresstome® vibrating microtome. These precision cut tissue slice models are an extension of Visikol’s existing 3D cell culture model portfolio and provide researchers with improved in vivo relevancy when compared to traditional spheroid and organoid 3D cell culture as they are derived from patient or animal tissue.
Precisionary Instruments has over a decade of experience as a leader in the high-throughput and tissue sectioning industry. Their fully automated vibrating microtome (i.e. Compresstome® VF-310-0Z) can slice thicknesses of 4μm to 1000μm which allows for the easy and reproducible generation of viable 250 μm thick sections which Visikol can use in its assay services
Visikol currently offers three types of precision cut liver slice assays depending on a researcher’s specific needs.
- Normal Human Liver: This model leverages healthy donors and can be used for drug induced liver injury assays or studying NASH. For NASH, this disease state can be induced using either diet or chemical amendments such as TGF-β.
- Diseased Human Liver: If a researcher wants to study NASH using diseased liver tissue, Visikol can procure diseased tissue that meets their criteria such as that amelioration of the disease can be assessed.
- Mouse CCL4 Liver: While a mouse model does not provide the same level of in vivo relevancy as a human model, it is more reproducible and more on demand as donor tissue is easier to access. In the CCL4 liver model, fibrosis is induced via chemical treatment and amelioration can be evaluated similarly to how it is evaluated in the normal or diseases human liver tissue.
The ease of use and reproducibility of the Compresstome® tissue slicer allows for many compounds to be tested in a single study and for the models to be maintained in culture at least 72 hours.
If you are interested in learning more about Visikol’s in vitro NASH or DILI assays, please reach out today.
