INSERM unit 522 has specialized in liver function, its regulation and its deregulation.

It has a long experience with cell cultures in general and expertise in liver cells, mainly from human origin. The group has succeeded in setting experimental conditions for culturing long-term differentiated human hepatocytes. The group has established the new human HepaRG cell line and characterised it with respect to growth potential and hepatic differentiation. INSERM Unit 620 has a long expertise with studies on xenobiotic metabolism and toxicity in the liver. The group has contributed to the knowledge of expression and regulation of various detoxifying systems including cytochromes P450, glutathione transferases, plasma membrane transporters and DNA repair pathways in these models.

Scientific personnel

Christiane Guillouzo, Head of Unit 522: Andre Guillouzo, Professor of Toxicology, Head of Unit 620: Anne Corlu (expert in cell-cell communications): Sophie Langouet (phase I & II detoxification enzymes, DNA repair): Denise Glaise (liver cell culture).

Recent publications

1. Gripon P. et al. Infection of a new human hepatoma cell line by hepatitis B virus. Proc. Natl.Acad.Sci. 2002, 36:673-67. 2. Le Ferrec E. et al. Transcriptional induction of CYP1A by oltipraz in human Caco-2 cells is Ah receptor- and calcium-dependent. J. Biol. Chem. 2002, 277:24760-24787. 3. Andrieux L. et al. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation and cytochrome P450 1A induction by the mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor U0126 in hepatocytes. Mol. Pharmacol. 2004, 65:934-943. 4. Serandour A.L. et al. TNFalpha-mediated extracellular matrix remodeling is required for multiple division cycles in rat hepatocytes. Hepatology. 2005, 41: 478-86. 5. Gilot D. et al. A role for caspase-8 and c-FLIPL in proliferation and cell cycle progression of primary hepatocytes. Carcinogenesis, 2005,

COMET ASSAY and CELL ARRAY for genotoxicity testing - non-animal alternative for REACH