scholarly journals Pulsed Microfluid Force-Based On-Chip Modular Fabrication for Liver Lobule-Like 3D Cellular Models

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
J. Cui ◽  
H. P. Wang ◽  
Q. Shi ◽  
T. Sun

In vitro three-dimensional (3D) cellular models with native tissue-like architectures and functions have potential as alternatives to human tissues in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. However, it is difficult to replicate liver constructs that mimic in vivo microenvironments using current approaches in tissue engineering because of the vessel-embedded 3D structure and complex cell distribution of the liver. This paper reports a pulsed microflow-based on-chip 3D assembly method to construct 3D liver lobule-like models that replicate the spatial structure and functions of the liver lobule. The heterogeneous cell-laden assembly units with hierarchical cell distribution are fabricated through multistep photopatterning of different cell-laden hydrogels. Through fluid force interaction by pulsed microflow, the hierarchical assembly units are driven to a stack, layer by layer, and thus spatially assemble into 3D cellular models in the closed liquid chamber of the assembly chip. The 3D models with liver lobule-like hexagonal morphology and radial cell distribution allow the dynamic perfusion culture to maintain high cell viability and functional expression during long-term culture in vitro. These results demonstrate that the fabricated 3D liver lobule-like models are promising for drug testing and the study of individual diagnoses and treatments.

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1129
Author(s):  
Qian Liang ◽  
Yaozhen Hou ◽  
Fei Meng ◽  
Huaping Wang

Three-dimensional (3D) assembly of microstructures encapsulating co-cultured multiple cells can highly recapitulate the in vivo tissues, which has a great prospect in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In order to fully mimic the in vivo architecture, the hydrogel microstructure needs to be designed into a special shape and spatially organized without damage, which is very challenging because of its limited mechanical properties. Here, we propose a 3D assembly method for the construction of liver lobule-like microstructures (a mimetic gear-like microstructure of liver lobule) through the local fluidic interaction. Although the method has been proven and is known as the consensual means for constructing 3D cellular models, it is still challenging to improve the assembly efficiency and the assembly success rate by adjusting the fluidic force of non-contact lifting and stacking. To improve the assembly efficiency and the assembly success rate, a fluidic simulation model is proposed based on the mechanism of the interaction between the microstructures and the fluid. By computing the simulation model, we found three main parameters that affect the assembly process; they are the velocity of the microflow, the tilt angle of the manipulator and the spacing between the microstructures and the manipulator. Compared with our previous work, the assembly efficiency was significantly improved 63.8% by using the optimized parameters of the model for assembly process, and the assembly success rate was improved from 98% to 99.5%. With the assistance of the assembly simulation, the luminal 3D micromodels of liver tissue show suitable bioactivity and biocompatibility after long-term hepatocytes culture. We anticipate that our method will be capable of improving the efficiency of the microstructures assembly to regenerate more complex multicellular constructs with unprecedented possibilities for future tissue engineering applications.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 930
Author(s):  
Donatella Delle Cave ◽  
Riccardo Rizzo ◽  
Bruno Sainz ◽  
Giuseppe Gigli ◽  
Loretta L. del Mercato ◽  
...  

Pancreatic cancer, the fourth most common cancer worldwide, shows a highly unsuccessful therapeutic response. In the last 10 years, neither important advancements nor new therapeutic strategies have significantly impacted patient survival, highlighting the need to pursue new avenues for drug development discovery and design. Advanced cellular models, resembling as much as possible the original in vivo tumor environment, may be more successful in predicting the efficacy of future anti-cancer candidates in clinical trials. In this review, we discuss novel bioengineered platforms for anticancer drug discovery in pancreatic cancer, from traditional two-dimensional models to innovative three-dimensional ones.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kornphimol Kulthong ◽  
Guido J. E. J. Hooiveld ◽  
Loes Duivenvoorde ◽  
Ignacio Miro Estruch ◽  
Victor Marin ◽  
...  

AbstractGut-on-chip devices enable exposure of cells to a continuous flow of culture medium, inducing shear stresses and could thus better recapitulate the in vivo human intestinal environment in an in vitro epithelial model compared to static culture methods. We aimed to study if dynamic culture conditions affect the gene expression of Caco-2 cells cultured statically or dynamically in a gut-on-chip device and how these gene expression patterns compared to that of intestinal segments in vivo. For this we applied whole genome transcriptomics. Dynamic culture conditions led to a total of 5927 differentially expressed genes (3280 upregulated and 2647 downregulated genes) compared to static culture conditions. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed upregulated pathways associated with the immune system, signal transduction and cell growth and death, and downregulated pathways associated with drug metabolism, compound digestion and absorption under dynamic culture conditions. Comparison of the in vitro gene expression data with transcriptome profiles of human in vivo duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon tissue samples showed similarities in gene expression profiles with intestinal segments. It is concluded that both the static and the dynamic gut-on-chip model are suitable to study human intestinal epithelial responses as an alternative for animal models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Jeger-Madiot ◽  
Lousineh Arakelian ◽  
Niclas Setterblad ◽  
Patrick Bruneval ◽  
Mauricio Hoyos ◽  
...  

AbstractIn recent years, 3D cell culture models such as spheroid or organoid technologies have known important developments. Many studies have shown that 3D cultures exhibit better biomimetic properties compared to 2D cultures. These properties are important for in-vitro modeling systems, as well as for in-vivo cell therapies and tissue engineering approaches. A reliable use of 3D cellular models still requires standardized protocols with well-controlled and reproducible parameters. To address this challenge, a robust and scaffold-free approach is proposed, which relies on multi-trap acoustic levitation. This technology is successfully applied to Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) maintained in acoustic levitation over a 24-h period. During the culture, MSCs spontaneously self-organized from cell sheets to cell spheroids with a characteristic time of about 10 h. Each acoustofluidic chip could contain up to 30 spheroids in acoustic levitation and four chips could be ran in parallel, leading to the production of 120 spheroids per experiment. Various biological characterizations showed that the cells inside the spheroids were viable, maintained the expression of their cell surface markers and had a higher differentiation capacity compared to standard 2D culture conditions. These results open the path to long-time cell culture in acoustic levitation of cell sheets or spheroids for any type of cells.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Wei Mao ◽  
Sol Lee ◽  
Ji Un Shin ◽  
Hyuk Sang Yoo

Surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) documented a simple but efficient technique to grow a dense polymer layer on any surface. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) give a broad surface to immobilize sulfhyryl group-containing initiators for SI-ATRP; in addition, AuNPs are the major nanoparticulate carriers for delivery of anti-cancer therapeutics, since they are biocompatible and bioinert. In this work, AuNPs with a disulfide initiator were polymerized with sulfoethyl methacrylate by SI-ATRP to decorate the particles with anionic corona, and branched polyethyeleneimine (PEI) and siRNA were sequentially layered onto the anionic corona of AuNP by electrostatic interaction. The in vitro anti-cancer effect confirmed that AuNP with anionic corona showed higher degrees of apoptosis as well as suppression of the oncogene expression in a siRNA dose-dependent manner. The in vivo study of tumor-bearing nude mice revealed that mice treated with c-Myc siRNA-incorporated AuNPs showed dramatically decreased tumor size in comparison to those with free siRNA for 4 weeks. Furthermore, histological examination and gene expression study revealed that the decorated AuNP significantly suppressed c-Myc expression. Thus, we envision that the layer-by-layer assembly on the anionic brushes can be potentially used to incorporate nucleic acids onto metallic particles with high transfection efficiency.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088532822110511
Author(s):  
Youbin Li ◽  
Shaochuan Wang ◽  
Shidan Li ◽  
Jun Fei

Implant-related infection is a disastrous complication. Surface modification of titanium is considered as an important strategy to prevent implant-related infection. However, there is no recognized surface modification strategy that can be applied in clinic so far. We explored a new strategy of coating. The clindamycin-loaded titanium was constructed by layer-by-layer self-assembly. The release of clindamycin from titanium was detected through high performance liquid chromatography. Different titanium was co-cultured with Staphylococcus aureus for 24 h in vitro, then the effect of different titanium on bacterial colonization and biofilm formation was determined by spread plate method and scanning electron microscopy. Cytotoxicity and cytocompatibility of clindamycin-loaded titanium on MC3T3-E1 cells were measured by CCK8. The antibacterial ability of clindamycin-loaded titanium in vivo was also evaluated using a rat model of osteomyelitis. The number of osteoclasts in bone defect was observed by tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining. Bacterial burden of surrounding tissues around the site of infection was calculated by tissue homogenate and colony count. Clindamycin-loaded titanium could release clindamycin slowly within 160 h. It reduced bacterial colonization by three orders of magnitude compare to control ( p < .05) and inhibits biofilm formation in vitro. Cells proliferation and adhesion were similar on three titanium surfaces ( p > .05). In vivo, clindamycin-loaded titanium improved bone healing, reduced microbial burden, and decreased the number of osteoclasts compared control titanium in the rat model of osteomyelitis. This study demonstrated that clindamycin-loaded titanium exhibited good biocompatibility, and showed antibacterial activity both in vivo and in vitro. It is promising and might have potential for clinical application.


Development ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-216
Author(s):  
Anne McLaren

1. Of 30 mice born from aggregation of embryos from a multiple recessive strain with F1 embryos carrying the contrasting alleles, 4 females and 20 males proved to be overtly chimaeric. 2. Three XX/XX females, five XY/XY males and eight XY/XX males were identified by chromosome analysis. Thus 50 % of the population analysed were sex chimaeras, and all of these developed as phenotypic males, though one showed evidence of hermaphroditism. 3. In seven XY/XX chimaeras that bred, the genetic component undergoing spermatogenesis coincided in every case with the component identified by chromosome morphology as XY. 4. The F1 component predominated in metaphase plates derived from cultured blood cells. Comparison with direct preparations from bone marrow suggested selection in favour of F1 cells, either through differential proliferation of stem cells in vivo or differential response to phytohaemagglutinin in vitro. 5. In XY/XX males, the percentage of XX cells detected varied from 1 % to 98 % in blood, and from 0 % to 80 % in bone marrow. 6. Of eight ‘single-sex’ chimaeras progeny-tested (three XX/XX, five XY/XY), only one showed evidence of a mixed population of germ cells. The proportion of the two types of progeny varied significantly from litter to litter, but was unrelated to the age of the male.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
A. I. Mosiagina ◽  
A. V. Morgun ◽  
A. B. Salmina

There is growing research focusing on endothelial cells as separate units of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and on the complex relationships between different types of cells within a neurovascular unit. To conduct this type of studies, researches use vastly different in vitro BBB models. The main objective of such models is to study the BBB permeability for different molecules, and to advance the current level of understanding the mechanisms of disease and to develop methods of targeted therapy for the central nervous system. The analysis of the existing Abstract in vitro BBB models and their advantages/disadvantages was conducted using the clinical trial data obtained in Russian/foreign countries. In this review, the authors highlight the most relevant assessment parameters and propose a unified classification of in vitro BBB models. According to the performed analysis, there is a tendency to move from 2D BBB models based on semipermeable inserts to 3D BBB spheroid and microfluidic organ-on-chip models. Moreover, the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells instead of animal primary cells will make it possible to reliably scale the results obtained in vitro to conditions in vivo.


2014 ◽  
Vol 207 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bizarro ◽  
Christophe Charron ◽  
Séverine Boulon ◽  
Belinda Westman ◽  
Bérengère Pradet-Balade ◽  
...  

In vitro, assembly of box C/D small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins (snoRNPs) involves the sequential recruitment of core proteins to snoRNAs. In vivo, however, assembly factors are required (NUFIP, BCD1, and the HSP90–R2TP complex), and it is unknown whether a similar sequential scheme applies. In this paper, we describe systematic quantitative stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture proteomic experiments and the crystal structure of the core protein Snu13p/15.5K bound to a fragment of the assembly factor Rsa1p/NUFIP. This revealed several unexpected features: (a) the existence of a protein-only pre-snoRNP complex containing five assembly factors and two core proteins, 15.5K and Nop58; (b) the characterization of ZNHIT3, which is present in the protein-only complex but gets released upon binding to C/D snoRNAs; (c) the dynamics of the R2TP complex, which appears to load/unload RuvBL AAA+ adenosine triphosphatase from pre-snoRNPs; and (d) a potential mechanism for preventing premature activation of snoRNP catalytic activity. These data provide a framework for understanding the assembly of box C/D snoRNPs.


2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1631-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Chernukhin ◽  
Shaharum Shamsuddin ◽  
Sung Yun Kang ◽  
Rosita Bergström ◽  
Yoo-Wook Kwon ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT CTCF is a transcription factor with highly versatile functions ranging from gene activation and repression to the regulation of insulator function and imprinting. Although many of these functions rely on CTCF-DNA interactions, it is an emerging realization that CTCF-dependent molecular processes involve CTCF interactions with other proteins. In this study, we report the association of a subpopulation of CTCF with the RNA polymerase II (Pol II) protein complex. We identified the largest subunit of Pol II (LS Pol II) as a protein significantly colocalizing with CTCF in the nucleus and specifically interacting with CTCF in vivo and in vitro. The role of CTCF as a link between DNA and LS Pol II has been reinforced by the observation that the association of LS Pol II with CTCF target sites in vivo depends on intact CTCF binding sequences. “Serial” chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis revealed that both CTCF and LS Pol II were present at the β-globin insulator in proliferating HD3 cells but not in differentiated globin synthesizing HD3 cells. Further, a single wild-type CTCF target site (N-Myc-CTCF), but not the mutant site deficient for CTCF binding, was sufficient to activate the transcription from the promoterless reporter gene in stably transfected cells. Finally, a ChIP-on-ChIP hybridization assay using microarrays of a library of CTCF target sites revealed that many intergenic CTCF target sequences interacted with both CTCF and LS Pol II. We discuss the possible implications of our observations with respect to plausible mechanisms of transcriptional regulation via a CTCF-mediated direct link of LS Pol II to the DNA.


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