Use of cultured human hepatocytes for potential risk prediction of drug-induced hepatotoxicity is the title of the inaugural lecture of the Academic Year 1989-1990 of the Catalan Society of Pharmacology, with the collaboration of the Esteve Foundation. The lecture was imparted by José V. Castell, from the Research Center of the Hospital La Fe of Valencia, on November 8, 1989, at the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.