A novel organ-chip system emulates three-dimensional architecture of the human epithelia and the mechanical forces acting on it

Successful translation of in vivo experimental data to human patients is an unmet need and a bottleneck in the development of effective therapeutics. Organ-on-Chip technology aims to address this need by leveraging recent significant advancements in microfabrication and biomaterials, which enable modeling of organs and their functionality. These microengineered chips offer researchers the possibility to recreate critical elements of native tissue architecture such as in vivo relevant tissue-tissue interface, air-liquid interface, and mechanical forces, including mechanical stretch and fluidic shear stress, which are crucial to recapitulate tissue level functions. Here, we present the development of a new, comprehensive 3D cell-culture system, where we combined our proprietary Organ-Chip technology with the advantages offered by three-dimensional organotypic culture. Leveraging microfabrication techniques, we engineered a flexible chip that consists of a chamber containing an organotypic epithelium, surrounded by two vacuum channels that can be actuated to stretch the hydrogel throughout its thickness. Furthermore, the ceiling of this chamber is a removable lid with a built-in microchannel that can be perfused with liquid or air and removed as needed for direct access to the tissue. The bottom part of this chamber is made from a porous flexible membrane which allows diffusive mass transport to and from the microfluidic channel positioned below the membrane. This additional microfluidic channel can be coated with endothelial cells to emulate a blood vessel and recapitulate endothelial interactions. Our results show that the Open-Top Chip design successfully addresses common challenges associated with the Organs-on-Chip technology, including the capability to incorporate a tissue-specific extracellular matrix gel seeded with primary stromal cells, to reproduce the architectural complexity of tissues by micropatterning the gel, and to extract the gel for H&E staining. We also provide proof-of-concept data on the feasibility of using the system with primary human skin and alveolar epithelial cells.