Many pollutants from the environment and food, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients, can damage our liver. However, as the central metabolic organ of our body, it is indispensable. Primary cells can be isolated from the liver of experimental animals (e.g. mice) to investigate the chemical conversion of foreign substances in the liver and possible liver-toxic reactions. These primary liver cells enable comprehensive analyses of liver metabolism while retaining the physiologically relevant morphological and functional properties. However, complex biological processes, such as the development of liver cancer, cannot be analyzed with isolated primary liver cells.

By obtaining primary liver cells as an alternative model, the administration of test substances to living animals can be dispensed with (replacement). In addition, significantly fewer animals are required, as a large number of primary liver cells can be obtained from one liver and thus test substances can be examined under different conditions (reduction). Finally, the use of primary liver cell cultures means that any possible exposure of test animals to harmful substances can be ruled out. This cell culture model thus provides important findings for the toxicological assessment of harmful substances and for the protection of human health.