ABSTRACT
The liver is an important target organ for toxicity. It is especially susceptible to toxic agents absorbed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract as well as substances that must be metabolically activated to produce cellular injury. In addition, the liver is susceptible to carcinogenesis, notably in rodents, which are typically used in long-term studies to assess carcinogenic activity for predicting risk to humans. Most importantly, hepatotoxicity in humans has been a major reason for product development failures and withdrawal or signicant limitation in use of marketed products (Chen et al. 2011). Since the liver performs critical functions to support the life of the organism, signicant injury to the liver, ultimately leading to liver failure in humans, often results in death unless its function can be restored by transplantation (Soltys et al. 2010).
