Performance of Three‐Dimensional Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Hepatocyte Spheroids for Evaluating Biotransformation of Pyrene

By Maria Therese Hultman - Katharina Bjarnar Løken - Merete Grung - Malcolm J. Reid - Adam Lillicrap

The aquatic bioconcentration of a chemical is typically determined using conventional fish tests. To foster the approach of alternatives to animal testing, a combination of computational models and in vitro substrate depletion bioassays (e.g., primary hepatocytes) can be used. One recently developed in vitro assay is the three‐dimensional (3D) hepatic spheroid model from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the metabolic competence of the 3D spheroids from rainbow trout when exposed to pyrene, using 2 different sampling procedures (SP1 and SP2). The results were compared with previously published intrinsic clearance (CL) results from S9 fractions and primary hepatocyte assays. Extraction of pyrene using SP1 suggested that the spheroids had depleted 33% of the pyrene within 4 h of exposure, reducing to 91% after 30 h. However, when applying SP2 a substantial amount (36%) of the pyrene was bound to the exposure vial within 2 h, decreasing after 6 h of exposure. Formation of hydroxypyrene‐glucuronide (OH‐PYR‐Glu) was obtained throughout the study, displaying the metabolic competence of the 3D spheroids. The 2 sampling procedures yielded different CLᵢₙ ᵥᵢₜᵣₒ, where pyrene depletion using SP2 was very similar to published studies using primary hepatocytes. The 3D spheroids demonstrated reproducibile, log‐linear biotransformation of pyrene and displayed formation of OH‐PYR‐Glu, indicating their metabolic competence for 30 h or more. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:1738–1747. © 2019 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.