Application Notes

Hepatotoxicity test of drug-induced lipidosis using high-content imaging

March 2022

Drug-induced lipidosis is a cytotoxicity that causes inflammation and dysfunction due to the excessive accumulation of lipids in tissues and organs. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) also accumulates excess lipid droplets in the liver and progresses to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Therefore, lipid droplet analysis is being studied in a wide range of fields, including safety tests that screen for toxicity of drug candidate substances and the development of drugs and supplements that inhibit the accumulation of lipid droplets. In this application note, we introduce an example where accumulation of lipid droplets was analyzed by measuring the number, area and fluorescent intensity of lipid droplets from microscopic images using the lipid droplet staining fluorescent dye Lipi-Green and human hepatoma cell lines (HepG2 cells).