Organ-on-a-chip systems possess a promising future as drug screening assays and as testbeds for disease modeling in the context of both single-organ systems and multi-organ-chips. Although it ...comprises approximately one fourth of the body weight of a healthy human, an organ frequently overlooked in this context is white adipose tissue (WAT). WAT-on-a-chip systems are required to create safety profiles of a large number of drugs due to their interactions with adipose tissue and other organs
via
paracrine signals, fatty acid release, and drug levels through sequestration. We report a WAT-on-a-chip system with a footprint of less than 1 mm
2
consisting of a separate media channel and WAT chamber connected
via
small micropores. Analogous to the
in vivo
blood circulation, convective transport is thereby confined to the vasculature-like structures and the tissues protected from shear stresses. Numerical and analytical modeling revealed that the flow rates in the WAT chambers are less than 1/100 of the input flow rate. Using optimized injection parameters, we were able to inject pre-adipocytes, which subsequently formed adipose tissue featuring fully functional lipid metabolism. The physiologically relevant microfluidic environment of the WAT-chip supported long term culture of the functional adipose tissue for more than two weeks. Due to its physiological, highly controlled, and computationally predictable character, the system has the potential to be a powerful tool for the study of adipose tissue associated diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Organs-on-a-chip possess a promising future as drug screening assays and testbeds for disease modeling in the context of both single-organ systems and multi-organ-chips.
This article describes our next generation human Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System (LAMPS). The key demonstration of this study was that Zone 1 and Zone 3 microenvironments can be established by ...controlling the oxygen tension in individual devices over the range of ca. 3 to 13%. The oxygen tension was computationally modeled using input on the microfluidic device dimensions, numbers of cells, oxygen consumption rates of hepatocytes, the diffusion coefficients of oxygen in different materials and the flow rate of media in the MicroPhysiology System (MPS). In addition, the oxygen tension was measured using a ratiometric imaging method with the oxygen sensitive dye, Tris(2,2′-bipyridyl) dichlororuthenium(II) hexahydrate (RTDP) and the oxygen insensitive dye, Alexa 488. The Zone 1 biased functions of oxidative phosphorylation, albumin and urea secretion and Zone 3 biased functions of glycolysis, α1AT secretion, Cyp2E1 expression and acetaminophen toxicity were demonstrated in the respective Zone 1 and Zone 3 MicroPhysiology System. Further improvements in the Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System included improved performance of selected nonparenchymal cells, the inclusion of a porcine liver extracellular matrix to model the Space of Disse, as well as an improved media to support both hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells. In its current form, the Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System is most amenable to low to medium throughput, acute through chronic studies, including liver disease models, prioritizing compounds for preclinical studies, optimizing chemistry in structure activity relationship (SAR) projects, as well as in rising dose studies for initial dose ranging.
Impact statement
Oxygen zonation is a critical aspect of liver functions. A human microphysiology system is needed to investigate the impact of zonation on a wide range of liver functions that can be experimentally manipulated. Because oxygen zonation has such diverse physiological effects in the liver, we developed and present a method for computationally modeling and measuring oxygen that can easily be implemented in all MPS models. We have applied this method in a liver MPS in which we are then able to control oxygenation in separate devices and demonstrate that zonation-dependent hepatocyte functions in the MPS recapitulate what is known about in vivo liver physiology. We believe that this advance allows a deep experimental investigation on the role of zonation in liver metabolism and disease. In addition, modeling and measuring oxygen tension will be required as investigators migrate from PDMS to plastic and glass devices.
Three-dimensional (3D) microphysiological systems (MPSs) mimicking human organ function
in vitro
are an emerging alternative to conventional monolayer cell culture and animal models for drug ...development. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have the potential to capture the diversity of human genetics and provide an unlimited supply of cells. Combining hiPSCs with microfluidics technology in MPSs offers new perspectives for drug development. Here, the integration of a newly developed liver MPS with a cardiac MPS—both created with the same hiPSC line—to study drug–drug interaction (DDI) is reported. As a prominent example of clinically relevant DDI, the interaction of the arrhythmogenic gastroprokinetic cisapride with the fungicide ketoconazole was investigated. As seen in patients, metabolic conversion of cisapride to non-arrhythmogenic norcisapride in the liver MPS by the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP3A4 was inhibited by ketoconazole, leading to arrhythmia in the cardiac MPS. These results establish integration of hiPSC-based liver and cardiac MPSs to facilitate screening for DDI, and thus drug efficacy and toxicity, isogenic in the same genetic background.
Secondary anchor targeted cell release Ansari, Ali; Lee‐Montiel, Felipe T.; Amos, Jennifer R. ...
Biotechnology and bioengineering,
November 2015, Volume:
112, Issue:
11
Journal Article
The profiling of cellular heterogeneity has wide-reaching importance for our understanding of how cells function and react to their environments in healthy and diseased states. Our ability to ...interpret and model cell behavior has been limited by the difficulties of measuring cell differences, for example, comparing tumor and non-tumor cells, particularly at the individual cell level. This demonstrates a clear need for a generalizable approach to profile fluorophore sites on cells or molecular assemblies on beads. Here, a multiplex immunoassay for simultaneous detection of five different angiogenic markers was developed. We targeted angiogenic receptors in the vascular endothelial growth factor family (VEGFR1, VEGFR2 and VEGFR3) and Neuropilin (NRP) family (NRP1 and NRP2), using multicolor quantum dots (Qdots). Copper-free click based chemistry was used to conjugate the monoclonal antibodies with 525, 565, 605, 655 and 705 nm CdSe/ZnS Qdots. We tested and performed colocalization analysis of our nanoprobes using the Pearson correlation coefficient statistical analysis. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were tested. The ability to easily monitor the molecular indicators of angiogenesis that are a precursor to cancer in a fast and cost effective system is an important step towards personalized nanomedicine.
We present plasmonic optical trapping of micron-sized particles in biologically relevant buffer media with varying ionic strength. The media consist of 3 cell-growth solutions and 2 buffers and are ...specifically chosen due to their widespread use and applicability to breast-cancer and angiogenesis studies. High-precision rheological measurements on the buffer media reveal that, in all cases excluding the 8.0 pH Stain medium, the fluids exhibit Newtonian behavior, thereby enabling straightforward measurements of optical trap stiffness from power-spectral particle displacement data. Using stiffness as a trapping performance metric, we find that for all media under consideration the plasmonic nanotweezers generate optical forces 3-4x a conventional optical trap. Further, plasmonic trap stiffness values are comparable to those of an identical water-only system, indicating that the performance of a plasmonic nanotweezer is not degraded by the biological media. These results pave the way for future biological applications utilizing plasmonic optical traps.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The immature physiology of cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) limits their utility for drug screening and disease modelling. Here we show that suitable ...combinations of mechanical stimuli and metabolic cues can enhance the maturation of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, and that the maturation-inducing cues have phenotype-dependent effects on the cells' action-potential morphology and calcium handling. By using microfluidic chips that enhanced the alignment and extracellular-matrix production of cardiac microtissues derived from genetically distinct sources of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, we identified fatty-acid-enriched maturation media that improved the cells' mitochondrial structure and calcium handling, and observed divergent cell-source-dependent effects on action-potential duration (APD). Specifically, in the presence of maturation media, tissues with abnormally prolonged APDs exhibited shorter APDs, and tissues with aberrantly short APDs displayed prolonged APDs. Regardless of cell source, tissue maturation reduced variabilities in spontaneous beat rate and in APD, and led to converging cell phenotypes (with APDs within the 300-450 ms range characteristic of human left ventricular cardiomyocytes) that improved the modelling of the effects of pro-arrhythmic drugs on cardiac tissue.
Fluorescence-based tools, in particular optimized fluorophores, offer useful approaches to map cellular heterogeneity. Applying quantum dot (Qdot) technology towards heterogeneity profiling would be ...a novel approach for characterizing cellular dispersion and requires sensitive calibration standards. To this end, we have employed biotin-streptavidin chemistry to design improved quantitative, Qdot calibration beads. These calibration beads include commercially available Innovator's Tool Kit (ITK)-streptavidin Qdots (Qdots) conjugated to biotin coated polystyrene beads, providing a laboratory-accessible approach for quantitative calibration. We have engineered Qdot calibration beads at 525 nm, 565 nm, 605 nm, 655 nm, and 705 nm emission spectra. These beads provide calibration standards within the 0.0072-0.72 nM Qdot range, corresponding to an initial estimation of 800-80 000 Qdots per bead. We measured the proportion of Qdot loss during bead isolation steps and determined an accurate relationship between theoretical Qdot levels and actual Qdot levels using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). A linear relationship between fluorescence and Qdot number was observed with estimated concentrations of 1.13 × 10
μg Cd/Qdot 525, 2.34 × 10
μg Cd/Qdot 565, 1.49 × 10
μg Cd/Qdot 605, 1.99 × 10
μg Cd/Qdot 655 and 1.65 × 10
μg Cd/Qdot 705. We also report the difference in concentration estimates between the fluorescence and ICP-MS methods. This study establishes the optimal conditions for preparing Qdot calibration beads from commercially available Qdots for quantitative, biophotonic applications including measuring cell surface heterogeneity.
In a globalized word, prevention of infectious diseases is a major challenge. Rapid detection of viable virus particles in water and other environmental samples is essential to public health risk ...assessment, homeland security and environmental protection. Current virus detection methods, especially assessing viral infectivity, are complex and time-consuming, making point-of-care detection a challenge. Faster, more sensitive, highly specific methods are needed to quantify potentially hazardous viral pathogens and to determine if suspected materials contain viable viral particles. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with cellular-based sensing, may offer a precise way to detect specific viruses. This approach utilizes infrared light to monitor changes in molecular components of cells by tracking changes in absorbance patterns produced following virus infection. In this work poliovirus (PV1) was used to evaluate the utility of FTIR spectroscopy with cell culture for rapid detection of infective virus particles.
Buffalo green monkey kidney (BGMK) cells infected with different virus titers were studied at 1 - 12 hours post-infection (h.p.i.). A partial least squares (PLS) regression method was used to analyze and model cellular responses to different infection titers and times post-infection. The model performs best at 8 h.p.i., resulting in an estimated root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) of 17 plaque forming units (PFU)/ml when using low titers of infection of 10 and 100 PFU/ml. Higher titers, from 103 to 106 PFU/ml, could also be reliably detected.
This approach to poliovirus detection and quantification using FTIR spectroscopy and cell culture could potentially be extended to compare biochemical cell responses to infection with different viruses. This virus detection method could feasibly be adapted to an automated scheme for use in areas such as water safety monitoring and medical diagnostics.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The profiling of cellular heterogeneity has wide-reaching importance for our understanding of how cells function and react to their environments in healthy and diseased states. Our ability to ...interpret and model cell behavior has been limited by the difficulties of measuring cell differences, for example, comparing tumor and non-tumor cells, particularly at the individual cell level. This demonstrates a clear need for a generalizable approach to profile fluorophore sites on cells or molecular assemblies on beads. Here, a multiplex immunoassay for simultaneous detection of five different angiogenic markers was developed. We targeted angiogenic receptors in the vascular endothelial growth factor family (VEGFR1, VEGFR2 and VEGFR3) and Neuropilin (NRP) family (NRP1 and NRP2), using multicolor quantum dots (Qdots). Copper-free click based chemistry was used to conjugate the monoclonal antibodies with 525, 565, 605, 655 and 705 nm CdSe/ZnS Qdots. We tested and performed colocalization analysis of our nanoprobes using the Pearson correlation coefficient statistical analysis. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were tested. The ability to easily monitor the molecular indicators of angiogenesis that are a precursor to cancer in a fast and cost effective system is an important step towards personalized nanomedicine.
Multicolor Quantum dots multiplexing single cell analysis of membrane receptors for the development of better patient therapies and the advance of personalized medicine.
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