Peptide hydrogels: A 3D in vitro model for liver toxicity.

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Liver diseases are a significant medical burden, due to the lack of donors. There is a heavy global reliance on animal testing with a wide variety of animals used, and a major cause of cessation of drug development is secondary liver toxicity. The most common toxicity associated with drug withdrawals in the US and Europe are hepatic at 21%. This project exploits an engineered 3D culture system that maintains hepatocyte specific functions for liver toxicity testing using self-assembled peptide hydrogels that mimic the hepatic microenvironment. Optimal gels will be characterised for material physical and chemical properties, cell behaviour (using biochemical assays, immunocytochemistry/imaging and gene and protein expression), to determine the optimal gel system that can support the appropriate cells in long term culture, that can allow the cells to respond to toxins. This may then prove to be an appropriate in vitro 3D culture platform for liver toxicity testing.