Understanding the Lymphatic System: Tissue-on-Chip Modeling.

Area of Science:

• Vascular Biology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Immunology

Background:

• The lymphatic vasculature is crucial for fluid balance, lipid transport, and immune responses.
• Lymphatic dysfunction is linked to various diseases, systemic inflammation, and altered drug efficacy.
• Current in vitro models are limited in fully recapitulating lymphatic physiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advancements in reconstructing lymphatic vessels in vitro.
• To establish humanized, functional models for studying lymphatic biology and pathophysiology.
• To identify opportunities for developing improved microphysiological lymphatic systems.

Main Methods:

• Review of lymphatic endothelial cell biology and the lymphatic microenvironment.
• Focus on unique lymphatic features used in lymphatic-on-chip device design.
• Discussion of current state-of-the-art in vitro lymphatic function recapitulation.

Main Results:

• Progress has been made in creating in vitro models of lymphatic vessels.
• Key lymphatic endothelial cell characteristics and microenvironmental factors have been identified for model design.
• Current approaches face limitations in fully replicating lymphatic function.

Conclusions:

• Developing advanced in vitro lymphatic models is essential for understanding lymphatic roles in health and disease.
• Further development of microphysiological lymphatic systems is needed to bridge the gap between cell culture and animal models.
• These improved models will advance lymphatic biology research and disease modeling.