Farewell to Animal Testing: Innovations on Human Intestinal Microphysiological Systems

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Microfluidics
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Intestinal homeostasis relies on host-microbe interactions, epithelium, immune components, and peristalsis.
• Existing human intestinal disease models struggle to accurately predict pathophysiology.
• Organoid models lack luminal flow and peristalsis, limiting host-microbe crosstalk simulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss advances in human intestinal microphysiological systems.
• To highlight the Gut-on-a-Chip model for recapitulating intestinal functions and pathophysiology.
• To explore future perspectives of microphysiological systems for personalized drug validation.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing microfluidics, tissue engineering, and clinical microbiology.
• Developing biomimetic human "Gut-on-a-Chip" systems.
• Incorporating villus epithelium, gut microbiota, and immune components with peristalsis-like motion and flow.

Main Results:

• Gut-on-a-Chip systems reconstitute the transmural 3D lumen-capillary tissue interface.
• These systems recapitulate organ-level intestinal functions.
• The models successfully emulate intestinal disorder pathophysiology, including chronic inflammation.

Conclusions:

• Microphysiological systems, like Gut-on-a-Chip, offer advanced platforms for studying intestinal health and disease.
• These systems overcome limitations of traditional models by incorporating dynamic physiological conditions.
• Future microphysiological systems hold promise for personalized preclinical drug validation.