ArticleScientific reports2018
Establishing normal metabolism and differentiation in hepatocellular carcinoma cells by culturing in adult human serum.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards the standardization of human platelet lysate production and its comparison to fetal bovine serum for human hematopoietic cell culture: a scoping review.Frontiers in toxicology · 2025Pooled it
- Human serum-supplemented cell culture conditions improve xenobiotic metabolism in hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and Huh7.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Cell line identity rather than medium composition determines transcriptomic profiles of HepaRG and HuH7 cells cultured in chemically defined or serum-based media: comparison with primary human hepatocytes.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Physiologically relevant media are associated with overlapping metabolic responses in primary human hepatocytes and Huh7 cells.Physiological reports · 2026Article
- AI-enhanced clinical trial-in-a-dish platform for improved DILI risk classification and mechanistic insights into hepatotoxicity.Frontiers in toxicology · 2026Article
- Article
- Differential Anti-Fibrotic and Remodeling Responses of Human Dermal Fibroblasts toMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Transcriptome-based biomarker prediction for Parkinson's disease using genome-scale metabolic modeling.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Improving physiological relevance of cell culture: the possibilities, considerations, and future directions of the ex vivo coculture model.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2023Review
- An in vitro human mammary epithelial cell permeability assay to assess drug secretion into breast milk.International journal of pharmaceutics: X · 2022Article
- Optimisation of the HepaRG cell line model for drug toxicity studies using two different cultivation conditions: advantages and limitations.Archives of toxicology · 2022Article
- Disturbance of the Warburg effect by dichloroacetate and niclosamide suppresses the growth of different sub-types of malignant pleural mesotheliomaFrontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analyses of Metabolic Models: Open-Source Python Tools and Applications to Cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Review
- Influence of vitamin D treatment on functional expression of drug disposition pathways in human kidney proximal tubule cells during simulated uremia.Xenobiotica; the fate of foreign compounds in biological systems · 2021Article
- Article
- Rescue Potential of Supportive Embryo Culture Conditions on Bovine Embryos Derived from Metabolically Compromised Oocytes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Article
- Modifying nutritional substrates induces macrovesicular lipid droplet accumulation and metabolic alterations in a cellular model of hepatic steatosis.Physiological reports · 2020Article
- Article
- Current status and applications of genome-scale metabolic models.Genome biology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Tissue culture medium routinely contains fetal bovine serum (FBS). Here we show that culturing human hepatoma cells in their native, adult serum (human serum, HS) results in the restoration of key morphological and metabolic features of normal liver cells. When moved to HS, these cells show differential transcription of 22-32% of the genes, stop proliferating, and assume a hepatocyte-like morphology. Metabolic analysis shows that the Warburg-like metabolic profile, typical for FBS-cultured cells, is replaced by a diverse metabolic profile consistent with in vivo hepatocytes, including the formation of large lipid and glycogen stores, increased glycogenesis, increased beta-oxidation and ketogenesis, and decreased glycolysis. Finally, organ-specific functions are restored, including xenobiotics degradation and secretion of bile, VLDL and albumin. Thus, organ-specific functions are not necessarily lost in cell cultures, but might be merely suppressed in FBS. The effect of serum is often overseen in cell culture and we provide a detailed study in the changes that occur and provide insight in some of the serum components that may play a role in the establishment of the differentiated phenotype.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.