Comparable Transcriptomic Profiles of HepaRG and HuH7 Cells Cultured in Chemically Defined and Serum-Based Media Using Primary Human Hepatocytes as Reference

For decades, fetal bovine serum (FBS) has been routinely incorporated into liver cell culture. Its undefined and lot-to-lot variable composition can, however, confound cell identity and experimental reproducibility.

Serum-free, chemically defined media (CDM) represent an alternative approach that can improve standardization, but the consequences of transitioning from FBS-supplemented media (FBS-SM) to CDM remain insufficiently characterized in hepatic models, particularly with respect to metabolic and detoxification programs that govern xenobiotic handling and hepatotoxicity readouts. Here, we systematically assessed how replacing FBS-SM with CDM remodels transcriptomic profiles in two widely used human hepatic cell lines (HepaRG and HuH7 cells) and compared the results to that obtained in primary human hepatocytes (PHH).