Figure 2. High-throughput hepatic systems.

(A) 532-well micropillar and microwell plate combination that can contain as little as 60 nL in each well. Hepatic cells (i.e. THLE-2) suspended in a Matrigel™ droplet are spotted on each micropillar, which are then placed in a microwell containing recombinant adenoviruses. The adenoviruses are engineered to transduce the cells with different combinations of drug metabolism genes towards determining enzymes involved in the observed toxicity of a drug. Adapted from [11] with permission from Nature Publishing Group. (B) Hanging-drop method for generating liver spheroids of controlled diameters. Briefly, a cell mixture is seeded into the wells of a specialized 96-well plate that allows the spheroid to form and mature in a hanging drop. The spheroids are then transferred to another culture plate for drug dosing. Adapted from [13] with permission from Springer.