Paper on early in-vitro testing for adverse effects on embryos
Embryonic cells and liver cells have been combined in a new cell culture test. This combination enables to detect adverse effects that new drugs may have on embryos early on in the drug development process as detailed in a recent reaserch article in Advanced Science.
The new procedure, published in the journal Advanced Science (J. Boos, P. Misun, A. Michlmayr, A. Hierlemann, O. Frey, "Microfluidic multitissue platform for advanced embryotoxicity testing in vitro", Advanced Science 2019, article 1900294), is an augmened form of the embryonic stem cell test, in which substances are tested in vitro with so-called "embryoid bodies". These three-dimensional clumps of cells are formed from embryonic stem cells – in this case, from a mouse – and undergo the first stages of embryonic development over a period of ten days. No viable embryos can be produced from these cells.The new test does not yet replace the animal trials that are legally required as part of the medication approval process. However, as the new procedure is simple, fast, and inexpensive, researchers will be able to use it in the future to test a large number of drug candidates at an early stage of the development process.
Substances that are harmful to embryos will thus be detected early in the drug development process and not only in embryotoxicity studies in animal trials. Because they are so expensive, animal tests are not conducted until much later in the drug development process with only carefully preselected potential drug candidates. As the new test weeds out unsuccessful drug candidates earlier, it may help cutting costs and reducing the number of animal experiments.