Primary cultures of human hepatocytes: a unique system for studies in toxicology, virology, parasitology and liver pathophysiology in man

Since the development of a method for the isolation of hepatocytes from rat livers, primary cultures of rat hepatocytes have been extensively used for st?!dies of metabolic processes, biotransformation and genotoxicity of xenobiotics. However, primary cultures of hepatocytes, seeded on tissue culture plastic and under classical culture conditions do not maintain liver-specific functions. In the past few years, considerable progress has been made in improving conditions for culturing hepatocytes. At the same time, a technique for isolating human hepatocytes from human liver tissue has been developed and is now increasingly applied for the study of liverspecific processes in man and to elucidate the biology of human-specific pathogens or parasites such as the malarial parasite PlasnlotliumJ~lciparurn and the Hepatitis B virus. In this review we shall focus on recent developments in the culturing conditions and the application of human hepatocytes for basic and clinical research.