AUTHOR=Ryu Bokyeong , Son Mi-Young , Jung Kwang Bo , Kim Ukjin , Kim Jin , Kwon Ohman , Son Ye Seul , Jung Cho-Rok , Park Jae-Hak , Kim C-Yoon TITLE=Next-Generation Intestinal Toxicity Model of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Enterocyte-Like Cells JOURNAL=Frontiers in Veterinary Science VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.587659 DOI=10.3389/fvets.2021.587659 ISSN=2297-1769 ABSTRACT=The gastrointestinal tract is the most common exposure route of xenobiotics and, intestinal toxicity can result in systemic toxicity in most cases. It is important to develop intestinal toxicity assays mimicking human system, thus stem cells are rapidly being developed as new paradigms of toxicity assessment. In this study, we established human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived enterocyte-like cells (ELCs) and compared to existing in vivo and in vitro models. We found hESC-ELCs and in vivo model showed transcriptomically similar expression patterns of total 10,020 genes than commercialized cell lines. Asides, we treated the hESC-ELCs, in vivo rats, Caco-2 cells, and Hutu-80 cells with quarter log units of lethal dose 50 or lethal concentration 50 of eight drugs; chloramphenicol, cycloheximide, cytarabine, diclofenac, fluorouracil, indomethacin, methotrexate, oxytetracycline; then subsequently analyzed biomolecular markers and morphological changes. While the four models showed similar tendencies in general toxicological reaction, hESC-ELCs showed a stronger correlation with in vivo model than immortalized cell lines. These results indicate hESC-ELCs can serve as a next-generation intestinal toxicity model.