3D Bioprinted Liver-on-a-Chip for Drug Cytotoxicity Screening.

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
• Tissue Engineering
• Drug Discovery and Development

Background:

• Current tissue-on-a-chip fabrication methods are complex, manual, and lack scalability.
• Existing methods limit the reproducibility of in vitro microphysiological systems.
• Need for advanced in vitro models to accurately mimic in vivo conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To automate the fabrication of tissue spheroids on a chip using 3D printing.
• To develop a high-throughput, reproducible liver-on-a-chip (LOC) model.
• To assess the utility of the 3D bioprinted LOC for drug toxicity studies.

Main Methods:

• Simultaneous 3D printing of human liver spheroids and polymeric flow chambers in a single step.
• Dynamic culturing of the liver-on-a-chip (LOC) model using a peristaltic pump.
• Assessment of cell viability, spheroid size, ATP activity, albumin production, and response to acetaminophen (APAP).

Main Results:

• 3D bioprinted LOCs exhibited high cell viability (>80%) and consistent metabolic activity for 14 days.
• Acetaminophen (APAP) treatment significantly reduced cell viability (<40%), ATP activity, and spheroid size.
• Demonstrated high reproducibility and scalability of the 3D bioprinting fabrication method.

Conclusions:

• 3D bioprinting offers an automated and scalable solution for fabricating tissue-on-a-chip models.
• The developed LOC serves as a robust in vitro model for assessing drug efficacy and toxicity.
• This technology holds promise for high-throughput in vivo biological process simulation and drug screening.