Three-dimensional culture of human proximal tubular epithelial cells for an in vitro evaluation of drug-induced kidney injury

Highlights•Renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (RPTECs) are the main targets of drug-induced kidney injury; however, no useful evaluation system is currently available.•We evaluated kidney injuries induced by 32 nephrotoxic drugs for up to 28 days using three-dimensional cultured RPTECs (3D-RPTECs) with enhanced expression of drug transporters.•The predictive performance of 3D-RPTECs for drug-induced kidney injury was better than conventional 2D-cultured RPTECs and HK-2 cells.•3D-RPTECs are useful for in vitro evaluation of RPTEC injury by measuring intracellular ATP levels.AbstractDrug-induced kidney injury (DIKI) is the major cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). Renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (RPTECs) are the primary target sites of DIKI and express transporters involved in renal drug disposition. In the present study, we focused on three-dimensionally cultured human RPTECs (3D-RPTECs) with elevated expression of drug transporters to investigate their utility in DIKI evaluation. Intracellular ATP levels in 3D-RPTECs are reduced by tenofovir and cisplatin that are substrates of an organic anion transporter 1 and an organic cation transporter 2, respectively. In addition, 3D-RPTECs were exposed to 17 and 15 drugs that are positive and negative to RPTEC toxicity, respectively, for up to 28 d. The 20 % decreasing concentration of drugs for ATP amount (EC20) was obtained, and the ratio of EC20 values and clinical maximum concentration (Cmax) ≤100 were used as cut-off value to evaluate potential of DIKI. The sensitivities of 3D-RPTECs were 82.4 % and 88.2 % after 7 d and 28 d of drug exposure, respectively, and the specificities were 100 % and 93.3 %, respectively. The predictive performance of 3D-RPTECs was higher than that of two-dimensional cultured RPTECs and the kidney cell line HK-2. In conclusion, 3D-RPTECs are useful for in vitro evaluation of RPTEC injury by measuring intracellular ATP levels.