Study design.

<p>Series 1: Isolated primary human hepatocytes (PHH) were left in standard media for 2 days and then received media supplemented with fatty acids. After 2 days of fat loading the fatty PHH were allocated to the defatting treatment group where the media was supplemented with the defatting cocktail of drugs, and the control groups, the standard control group and the vehicle control group that received vehicle only. Lean hepatocytes were kept in standard culture conditions throughout the experimental period. The experimentation period lasted for two days thereafter. Series 2: Human intra-hepatic endothelial cells (HIEC) and cholangiocytes were immuno-magnetically separated with Dynabeads conjugated with cell-specific monoclonal antibody. The cells were left in culture for 2 days in standard media to reach confluence and then were allocated to the intervention group that received the defatting cocktail and the control groups, the standard control group and the vehicle control group that had the media supplemented with the vehicle only. The experimentation period lasts for two days thereafter.