Primary human hepatocytes (PHH) are a main instrument in drug metabolism research and in the prediction of drug-induced phase I/II enzyme induction in humans. The HepG2 liver-derived cell line is commonly used as a surrogate for human hepatocytes, but their use in ADME and toxicity studies can be limited because of lowered basal levels of metabolizing enzymes. Despite their widespread use, the transcriptome of HepG2 cells compared to PHH is not well characterized. In this study, microarray analysis was conducted to ascertain the differences and similarities in mRNA expression between HepG2 cells and human hepatocytes before and after exposure to a panel of fluoroquinolone compounds. Comparison of the naïve HepG2 cell and PHH transcriptomes revealed a substantial number of basal gene expression differences. When HepG2 cells were dosed with a series of fluoroquinolones, trovafloxacin, which has been associated with human idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity, induced substantially more gene expression changes than the other quinolones, similar to previous observations with PHH. While TVX-treatment resulted in many gene expression differences between HepG2 cells and PHH, there were also a number of TVX-induced commonalities, including genes involved in RNA processing and mitochondrial function. Taken together, these results provide insight for interpretation of results from drug metabolism and toxicity studies conducted with HepG2 cells in lieu of PHH, and could provide further insight into the mechanistic evaluation of TVX-induced hepatotoxicity. Last Updated (by provider): Dec 15 2010 Contributors: Eric A Blomme Jeffrey F Waring Michael J Liguori Includes GDS3068. Update date: Nov 07 2007. Dataset description GDS3068: Analysis of primary hepatocytes (PHs) and HepG2 liver cells treated with various fluoroquinolones. PHs are used in drug metabolism research, and HepG2 cells are surrogates for PHs. Results provide insight into the differences in the response of PHs and HepG2 cells to xenobiotics. (inherited)