A core focus of Visikol is to provide researchers with open source, reproducible and affordable in vitro 3D liver models. We understand that 3D cell culture models have their limitations and are far from miniature organs in a dish and thus see it as our mission to provide researchers with a detailed understanding of which models are ideal for specific types of research questions as different research questions require different levels of complexity.

At Visikol, we currently offer two standard types of liver 3D cell culture models which are our OpenLiver™ HepaRG™ NP 3D model and our OpenLiver™ HepaRG™ 3D model. Our NP model is comprised of both HepaRG™ cells as well as non-parenchymal cells and our other model is comprised of HepaRG™ cells only. We also offer custom model development and can generate primary human hepatocyte/ non-parenchymal cell 3D cell culture models if required for your research question.

We are committed to working within the research community to build a consensus on which 3D cell culture modes are ideal from a cost, validation and throughput perspective for specific research questions.  As such, we provide all of the details on our model generation process so that our models can be replicated by other researchers for cross validation.

Both of our standard liver models are based on hepatoma-derived cells which are commonly used during the early assessment process. Using cell lines instead of primary cells allows for reproducible and consistent models that ultimately allow for the generation of reproducible results. Our HepG2 spheroids demonstrate hepatocyte-like morphology and the expression of bile canaliculi as well as dense cell-to-cell interactions. HepaRG preserve hepatocyte-like functions and can be used in metabolism studies as they better replicate drug metabolism compared to HepG2.