Methodology and Practice for Studying Crosstalk Between 3D Human Tissue Models in Pneumatically Actuated...

Area of Science:

• Drug development
• Translational medicine
• Bioengineering

Background:

• Drug development faces low success rates due to the translational gap between pre-clinical models and clinical trials.
• Conventional in vitro models lack phenotypical relevance and complexity, hindering accurate drug response prediction.
• Microphysiological systems (MPS) offer a solution by integrating microfluidics and bioengineering to better model human physiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the application of a multi-organ microphysiological system (MPS) for culturing organotypic tissues.
• To present an optimized and benchmarked MPS platform for assessing drug dynamics.
• To highlight the utility of MPS in addressing limitations in current drug development models.

Main Methods:

• Utilized state-of-the-art microfluidics and bioengineering principles.
• Developed and optimized a multi-organ MPS for culturing organotypic tissues.
• Benchmarked the system for short- and long-term dynamic assessments in a low-absorption environment.

Main Results:

• The multi-organ MPS successfully recapitulates tissue function and inter-organ crosstalk.
• The system demonstrates robust performance for assessing both short- and long-term drug dynamics.
• A low-absorption environment was achieved, suitable for sensitive drug development applications.

Conclusions:

• Multi-organ MPS represent a significant advancement in bridging the translational gap in drug development.
• The described MPS platform offers a more predictive and complex in vitro model for drug efficacy and toxicity testing.
• This technology has the potential to improve the success rates of drug development by providing more relevant pre-clinical data.