The method of the present invention relies on culturing hepatic cells in a growth medium in the presence of resazurin and a cytotoxic compound for a period time, and then measuring the degree of fluorescence of reduced resazurin as an indicator of nonviable cells. The assays described herein are particularly useful in screening drugs to determine their cytotoxic potential. Most commonly, drugs would be screened by the methods described herein to determine their potential hepatic toxicity as an alternative to current in vitro or in vivo models of liver toxicity. Alternatively the methods described herein could be used to determine the chemotherapeutic efficacy of drugs, particularly those directed towards hepatic tumors.
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