Decision Driving Insights
The FRG® Liver Humanized Mouse Platform
A complete system to support your science from in vitro development to in vivo validation
What is a Liver Humanized Mouse?
Liver humanized mice are specialized animal models where the hepatocytes in a mouse liver are replaced with human hepatocytes. The humanization process involves using a selective advantage that damages the mouse’s own hepatocytes and creates an environment for healthy transplanted human cells to engraft and reconstitute a functional liver. The FRG mouse model uses FAH deficiency, a naturally occurring mutation in the tyrosine catabolic pathway, which leads to type 1 tyrosinemia in the mice that is reparable with FAH positive donor hepatocytes. The goal of liver humanized mice is to create a more relevant model for studying human liver function, targets and diseases compared to traditional animal models or in vitro systems.
FRG® is the most versatile Liver Humanized Mouse Platform
The FRG Platform allows researchers to:
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Utilize the same donor hepatocytes in vivo and in vitro
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Expand donor hepatocytes of interest to extend donor availability
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Validate therapeutic approaches in human hepatocytes
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Explore a variety of human donor demographics in one model, including diseased donors
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Answer previously unapproachable questions in liver biology
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Assess cell replacement therapeutic approaches
Rigorously Refined, Globally Accessible, Market Proven for Over a Decade.
Click the magnifying icons to learn more about application areas for the FRG platform.
Many gene therapies are designed to target the human liver and liver humanized mice can help ensure that your delivery system is effective in human hepatocytes, before you ever move into the clinic. Human hepatocytes also express human genes and proteins and can be used to test gene therapy efficacy.
Liver humanized mice exhibit humanized lipid profiles, including LDL/HDL profile, lipoprotein levels, triglycerides and other human hepatocyte secreted metabolism factors like bile acids. These factors can be dysregulated to model human disease through diet or chemical interventions.
FRG mice can be repopulated with any FAH positive hepatocyte, including those from diseased human donors, or non-human primates and other mammalian species. Yecuris offers custom model generation services to develop the liver repopulated model that is right for you.
Liver transplantation is limited by the scarcity of donor livers, leading to many cell therapies designed to support patients with end-stage liver disease. FRG mice can be used to evaluate supportive potential of cell replacement therapies and iPCS-derived hepatocytes designed to mitigate the need for donor liver transplants.
Human livers respond to and metabolize drugs differently than rodents. Liver humanized mice can supply vital information on human drug PK/PD, metabolism, and toxicity that might be missed in traditional mouse models for safety.
Many hepatotropic pathogens, like malaria and hepatitis viruses are species specific, making in vivo research challenging. Liver humanized mice provide a solution allowing researchers to study the disease, and test therapeutics in the context of a functional liver.
FRG is a workhorse model for us and I am looking forward to continued collaboration.
— Team Lead of Liver Translational Research at a Pharmaceutical company