Human stem cell-derived hepatocytes: breakthrough of an expedient tool for preclinical assessment of drug-induced liver injury?

New developments coming from the rapidly advancing human stem cell research field are in the pipeline. In fact, due to the biological exibility of stem cells, biologists and toxicologists strongly believe that once the in vivo mechanisms driving cell differentiation and dedifferentiation are fully understood, stem cells can be modulated la carte. As a consequence, these cells will obtain the appropriate functionalities that are required for evaluating a particular toxicological mode of action (MoA). As such, stem cells could represent a valuable t for purpose tool in the unraveling of the MoA of a chemical substance at the molecular level.