The clinical success of a compound is often curtailed because of inadequate
safety, pharmacokinetics or efficacy. Human tissue can be used to identify
the potential shortcomings of new drugs before they undergo testing in man
. This review highlights the consent and ethical approval required for the
use of human tissues and discusses their use for predicting human ADME and
safety profiles of drugs in preclinical development. The ability to retriev
e a wide range of viable tissues from human donors provides the opportunity
to test drugs for many potential use-limiting side-effects.