Engineered microenvironments and pancreatic islet-on-chips for screening sugar substitute and antidiabetic compounds

Recent advancements in the food industry have rekindled interest in the safety of food additives, such as sugar substitutes and food pigments. Consequently, the main purpose of this study was to develop models that can more accurately predict the effects of these additives on the human body. In response to this demand, we have created an innovative pancreas islet-on-a-chip system featuring a concentration gradient generator and a perfusable 3D cell culture array. This setup facilitates the 3D culture of pseudo-islets under stable biochemical and biophysical conditions. When compared to static culture environments, our dynamic environment maintains islet cell viability at over 95 %, resulting in larger cell clusters that exhibit a higher tendency for aggregation up to 30 μm. Furthermore, the expression levels of key factors integral to islet development, namely INS-1, INS-2, and PDX-1, increased by 4.5-fold, 1.9-fold, and 5.8-fold respectively in the dynamic environment. Utilizing this sophisticated pancreas islet-on-a-chip model, we discovered that the consumption of sugar substitutes like erythritol and sucralose for 1 h does not impact insulin secretion levels. In contrast, the administration of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist exendin-4, curcumin, and a combination therapy group led to a substantial increase in insulin secretion levels (p < 0.01). Such engineered microenvironments and pancreatic islet-on-chips offer a groundbreaking platform for evaluating sugar substitutes and antidiabetic compounds.