Humanized Liver mice

Humanized liver mice are specialized chimeric models designed to overcome the biological limitations of studying human-specific liver functions in rodents. These mice are engineered by transplanting human hepatocytes (liver cells) into immunodeficient mice that have undergone selective liver injury. This process allows the human cells to repopulate the mouse liver, often achieving "humanization" levels where over 90% of the organ consists of human tissue. The result is a living system that mimics human metabolism, enzyme activity, and disease susceptibility far more accurately than standard laboratory animals.

Key Research Applications

• Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK): Predicting human-specific drug clearance, metabolite formation, and potential drug-drug interactions before clinical trials.

• Hepatotoxicity Testing: Identifying "idiosyncratic" liver toxicity—adverse reactions that often go undetected in traditional animal models but cause failure in human patients.

• Infectious Diseases: Studying human-tropic pathogens that do not naturally infect rodents, such as Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV), and Malaria.

• Gene and Cell Therapy: Evaluating the efficiency of viral vectors (like AAV) in targeting human hepatocytes and testing the engraftment of stem-cell-derived liver tissues.

• Metabolic Disorders: Modeling human-specific progressions of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and NASH.