An Easy-to-Use Arrayed Brain-Heart Chip.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Organ-on-a-chip Technology
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Multi-organ chips are crucial for emulating human physiology and inter-organ interactions.
• Existing models often lack the complexity to replicate dynamic tissue crosstalk effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an arrayed brain-heart chip with endothelial barriers for studying inter-organ communication.
• To assess the stability and functionality of co-cultured cerebral and cardiac organoids within the chip.

Main Methods:

• An arrayed chip design featuring open culture chambers and closed vascular channels separated by a fibrin-based endothelial barrier.
• Co-culture of cerebral organoids, cardiac organoids, and endothelial cells for at least one week.
• Numerical simulations to optimize fibrin barrier construction and experimental parameters.
• Analysis of material transport, crosstalk, and cellular infiltration of the barrier.

Main Results:

• Stable co-culture of cerebral organoids, cardiac organoids, and endothelial cells was achieved for over a week.
• The endothelial barrier facilitated crosstalk, evidenced by cardiac troponin I detection in cerebral organoid chambers.
• Cerebral organoids and endothelial cells infiltrated the fibrin matrix, indicating successful integration.
• Numerical simulations accurately predicted experimental outcomes for barrier construction.

Conclusions:

• The arrayed brain-heart chip effectively models inter-organ crosstalk between brain and heart organoids.
• The endothelial barrier design is crucial for enabling controlled communication and material transport.
• The chip's ease of use and compatibility with automation suggest significant potential for drug screening and disease modeling.