Advances in Engineered Three-Dimensional (3D) Body Articulation Unit Models

Abstract

Indeed, the body articulation units, commonly referred to as body joints, play significant roles in the musculoskeletal system, enabling body flexibility. Nevertheless, these articulation units suffer from several pathological conditions, such as osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis, gout, and psoriatic arthritis. There exist several treatment modalities based on the utilization of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, which can reduce or control the pathophysiological symptoms. Despite the success, these treatment modalities suffer from major shortcomings of enormous cost and poor recovery, limiting their applicability and requiring promising strategies. To address these limitations, several engineering strategies have been emerged as promising solutions in fabricating the body articulation as unit models towards local articulation repair for tissue regeneration and high-throughput screening for drug development. In this article, we present challenges related to the selection of biomaterials (natural and synthetic sources), construction of 3D articulation models (scaffold-free, scaffold-based, and organ-on-a-chip), architectural designs (microfluidics, bioprinting, electrospinning, and biomineralization), and the type of culture conditions (growth factors and active peptides). Then, we emphasize the applicability of these articulation units for emerging biomedical applications of drug screening and tissue repair/regeneration. In conclusion, we put forward the challenges and difficulties for the further clinical application of the in vitro 3D articulation unit models in terms of the long-term high activity of the models.

Human organs-on-chips for disease modelling, drug development and personalized medicine

“…Static microphysiological systems models, including microengineered tissues and organoids grown within 3D ECM gels, have demonstrated an impressive ability to recapitulate tissue histogenesis and many biological functions, including drug metabolism and cytotoxicity responses, as well as to model various disease states at the cell and tissue levels 7 , 10 . Thus, they provide powerful tools with which to dissect the molecular basis of developmental control as well as disease pathogenesis and, hence, could help to replace animal studies for particular applications.…”

“…Finally, I assess future opportunities and challenges for the field. For additional details on microfluidic systems engineering design or materials and the entire range of healthy and diseased organ chip models that have been developed using cells from humans or other species, I refer readers to previous reviews 6 , 7 .…”