Microfluidics – Organ-on-chip

Abstract

This review is an introduction into the world of organ-on-chip models. By briefly explaining the concept of microfluidics and ‘lab-on-chip’, the main focus is on organs-on-chip and body-on-a-chip. The usual method to test the toxicity of a drug is through animal testing. However, the results do not always correlate to humans. In order to avoid animal testing, but also attain useful results, human-derived cell cultures using microfluidics have gained attention. Among all the different types of organ-on-chip devices, this review focuses on three distinct organs: heart, skin and liver. The main requirements for each organ-on-chip, as well as recent researches are presented. There have been considerable advancements with organ-on-chip models; however, even these have their limitations. Due to the fact that the system mimics a single organ, the systemic effect of drugs cannot be fully tested. Therefore, body-on-a-chip systems have been developed; which basically are a composed of a single chip that has several chambers, each chamber accounting for a distinct organ. Multi-organ-on-chip systems have been investigated, and even commercialized, the field still being under extensive research.

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) for Biomedical Applications

“…Moreover, the BioMEMS-based 3D cell culture can be further applied for creating model human tissue/organ/body-on-chip systems (Figure 19). Such systems represent promising alternatives for the rapid testing of novel diagnostic and therapeutic molecules without involving any risk to animal models and human subjects [193,194]. While there are many literature studies investigating the development of organoids using microfluidic BioMEMS, the field is still in need of intensive research due to the complexity of the systems [195].…”