Organ culture systems, tissue interaction

The cell culture analog (CCA) system is one approach attempting to narrow this gap. It is developed to address the issues of reactive metabolite formation and tissue-tissue interaction through exchange of metabolites or signal molecules, and to evaluate potential efficacy and toxicity of pharmaceuticals and environmental chemicals. A CCA device can be considered as a simplified and minimized human/animal body, in which mammalian cell cultures are used to represent key functions of specific organs, and cell culture medium is used as a blood surrogate. 

The situation with in vitro models for predicting ACD, unlike its in vivo counterpart, is less complicated than that for ICD because there are very few in vitro systems which have even been proposed for ACD testing. This is also a consequence of the complexity of this disease since ACD involves the interaction of many organ systems, which cannot be properly simulated in any currently available cell or tissue culture model. Nevertheless, two assays that have shown some promise for predicting ACD with certain classes of allergens are the lymphocyte transformation test and the macrophage migratory inhibition test. 

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