Gut-On-A-Chip

Microfluidic gut-on-a-chip is a kind of biochip based on microfluidic technology, which can be used to study the physiological and pathological processes of the intestinal tract and the interaction between the intestinal tract and microorganisms. It simulates the anatomy, physiological structure, and function of the intestinal tract, and can realize the long-term culture and simulation of the intestinal tract in vitro.

Structure of Gut-on-Chips

Microfluidic gut-on-a-chip can achieve cell culture, reagent addition, pH, temperature, and other physical and chemical conditions adjustment with a volume of only a few cubic centimeters. The main body of the microfluidic gut-on-a-chip is composed of cell operation parts and fluid control parts. The cell operation parts include reagent injection and cell culture units; the fluid control parts are mainly multi-channel peristaltic pumps, which are used to control the flow of reagents between cell culture components.

Advantages of Gut-on-Chips

• Compared with other in vitro methods, the gut-on-a-chip has certain advantages in that it can monitor the growth of microorganisms and host-microbiome interactions, and at the same time adjust and measure ecologically relevant parameters (such as pH and O₂ levels) in real-time;
• Gut microbes on a chip can be linked to other chips to simulate gut-liver, gut-lung, or gut-brain axes;
• Gut-on-chips can be used for research in the following fields. (i) Diet-microbiome and drug-microbiome interactions, (ii) pharmacoecology of microbiome targeted therapy, (iii) mechanisms of targeted intervention between the intestinal microbiome and microbiome within the framework of personalized and prescription drugs.

Applications of Gut-on-Chips

• The gut-on-a-chip microfluidic system is an in vitro model for studying the intestinal tract. It usually contains two channels (representing the intestinal lumen and blood vessels) as well as sensors, electrodes, and other components. It uses polydimethylsiloxane materials and integrates a variety of mechanical stimuli, such as cell and liquid flow.
• Gut-on-chips can study intestinal physiology/pathology, absorption/barrier function, efficacy/toxicity of drugs/compounds and personalized medical treatment, etc., and derive microbiome chips for studying host-flora interaction, as well as model systems such as intestinal immune interaction chip and intestinal liver chip.
• Gut-on-a-chip still has challenges in integrating primary physiologically related cells and constructing tissue-like structures in vivo.

Alfa Chemistry's Manufacturing Capabilities of Gut-on-Chips

• Gut-microbiome co-culture model

(i) Function. To explore the influence of microorganisms and their metabolites on intestinal inflammation.

(ii) Advantages. Realize long-term co-cultivation of microorganisms and cells; simulate intestinal peristalsis; test parameters can be dynamically adjusted.

(iii) Disadvantages. Chip preparation is difficult; it is impossible to completely simulate the structure of intestinal microorganisms.

• Gut-liver co-culture model

(i) Function. Explore the first-pass elimination reactions of drugs.

(ii) Advantage. Realize the co-culture of intestinal cells and liver cells, the metabolic activity of intestinal cells and hepatocytes cultured on the chip was significantly increased.

(iii) Disadvantage. Cell line co-culture must be used, which is not as close to the physiological state as primary cells.

• Gut cell-digestive juice co-culture model

(i) Function. Detection of various oral compounds and protein bioavailability.

(ii) Advantage. Coexistence with artificial digestive fluid is closer to physiological conditions in vivo.

(iii) Disadvantage. Failure to fully simulate digestive fluid chemicals (such as digestive enzymes, etc.).

• Gut cell-vascular endothelial cell co-culture model

(i) Function. To evaluate the improvement effect of probiotics and antibiotics on intestinal damage.

(ii) Advantages. Vascular endothelial cells play a crucial role in supporting intestinal cells; chips are easy to assemble and disassemble.

(iii) Disadvantage. Failure to precisely control the specific parameters of the different cells within the chip.

If you need gut-on-chips processing and customized services, please feel free to contact our experts for a free consultation.

Reference

• Marrero, D.; et al. Gut-on-a-chip: Mimicking and monitoring the human intestine. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2021 Jun 1;181:113156.

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