Improvement of carbon tetrachloride drug-induced liver injury model in vitro

OBJECTIVE: To establish an ideal CCl4 drug-induced liver injury model in vitro. METHOD: Traditional method and improved method were adopted for preparing CCl4 injury liquid and drug-induced human liver HepG2 cell injury. Cell morphological change was observed under a bright-field microscope. The level of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in supernatant was detected by biochemical method. 4-Methyl-tetrazolium (MTT) chromatometry was adopted for determining cell activity. RESULT: The improved method showed better CCl4-induced injury effect than the traditional method. With the increase in the concentration of CCl4 injury liquid, the ALT level significantly increased, whereas the cell activity notably decreased. Particularly, 70% CCl4 injury liquid use for 4 hours could achieve the best injury effect. CONCLUSION: The improved method could be used to establish an ideal CCl4 drug-induced liver injury model in vitro, which can lay foundation for further in vitro studies.