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• Induced pluripotent stem cells iPSC differentiation to hepatocytes was characterized. • Two protocols were studied and compared to reduce the cost of differentiation. • Metabolomics analyses were coupled with Cap Analysis Gene Expression (nanoCAGE). • Hepatic phenotype was confirmed in both protocols by albumin and urea production. • Omics analyses explained iPSC metabolism during step-by-step differentiation. Human hepatocyte-like cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) may provide an unlimited supply of cells for in vitro liver models. However, hiPSC differentiation remains a major challenge due to immaturity of the hepatocytes obtained and the high cost of differentiation protocols currently proposed. Here, we studied the efficacy of new protocol, with reduction of growth factors, for the generation of hepatocyte-like cells from hiPSC. We performed metabolomic and mRNA analysis by RTqPCR and nanoCAGE processing to identify and understand key metabolisms during differentiation. By reducing the change frequency of the culture medium in the new protocol, we successfully generated hepatocyte-like cells producing albumin, urea, and CYP3A4 positive. The metabolomic analysis successfully extracted both signatures, common and specific, for each differentiation step. Integrating the metabolomic data with transcriptomic contributed to explaining the kinetics of carbohydrate, lipid and nitrogen metabolism throughout differentiation. The information extracted during differentiation showed that the cells moved from an aerobic-like respiration pattern to a mitochondrial oxidative respiration pattern in both protocols. Reducing culture medium renewal led to reduced glucose consumption, followed by fructose production and significant extracellular lipogenesis throughout differentiation. We believe that the overall dataset can provide information on the sequence of process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organ-on-chip technology is a promising in vitro approach recapitulating human physiology for the study of responses to drug exposure. Organ-on-chip cell cultures have paved new grounds for testing and understanding metabolic dose-responses when evaluating pharmaceutical and environmental toxicity. Here, we present a metabolomic investigation of a coculture of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs, SK-HEP-1) with hepatocytes (HepG2/C3a) using advanced organ-on-chip technology. To reproduce the physiology of the sinusoidal barrier, LSECs were separated from hepatocytes by a membrane (culture insert integrated organ-on-chip platform). The tissues were exposed to acetaminophen (APAP), an analgesic drug widely used as a xenobiotic model in liver and HepG2/C3a studies. The differences between the SK-HEP-1, HepG2/C3a monocultures and SK-HEP-1/HepG2/C3a cocultures, treated or not with APAP, were identified from metabolomic profiles using supervised multivariate analysis. The pathway enrichment coupled with metabolite analysis of the corresponding metabolic fingerprints contributed to extracting the specificity of each type of culture and condition. In addition, we analysed the responses to APAP treatment by mapping the signatures with significant modulation of the biological processes of the SK-HEP-1 APAP, HepG2/C3a APAP and SK-HEP-1/HepG2/C3a APAP conditions. Furthermore, our model shows how the presence of the LSECs barrier and APAP first pass can modify the metabolism of HepG2/C3a. Altogether, this study demonstrates the potential of a "metabolomic-on-chip" strategy for pharmaco-metabolomic applications predicting individual response to drugs. • HepG2/C3a spheroid-on-chip were cocultured with LSEC barrier in fluidic platform. • The coculture model was exposed to APAP and compared to monocultures. • Full metabolomic analyses were performed using GC-MS. • Without APAP, coculture present a synergy between LSEC and HepG2/C3a metabolism. • Coculture and LSEC treated with APAP presented similar metabolic signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]