An important application of hepatocyte cultures is identification of drugs acting as inducers of
biotransformation enzymes that alter metabolic clearance of other therapeutic agents. In the
present study we optimized an in vitro system with hepatocytes cultured in alginate
microspheres that allow studies of enzyme induction with excellent sensitivity. Induction
factors obtained with standard inducers, such as 3-methylcholanthrene or phenobarbital,
were higher compared to those with conventional hepatocyte co-cultures on collagen coated …