Peer-Reviewed Publications

    An intestine-on-a-chip model of plug-and-play modularity to study inflammatory processes

    Gijzen, L.; Marescotti, D.; Raineri, E.; Nicolas, A.; Lanz, H. L.; Guerrera, D.; van Vught, R.; Joore, J.; Vulto, P.; Peitsch, M. C.; Hoeng, J.; Lo Sasso, G.; Kurek, D.
    Published
    Jun 24, 2020
    DOI
    10.1177/2472630320924999
    PMID
    32576063
    Topic
    Summary

    Development of efficient drugs and therapies for the treatment of inflammatory conditions in the intestine is often hampered by the lack of reliable, robust, and high-throughput in vitro and in vivo models. Current models generally fail to recapitulate key aspects of the intestine, resulting in low translatability to the human situation. Here, an immunocompetent 3D perfused intestine-on-a-chip platform was developed and characterized for studying intestinal inflammation. Forty independent polarized 3D perfused epithelial tubular structures were grown from cells of mixed epithelial origin, including enterocytes (Caco-2) and goblet cells (HT29-MTX-E12). Immune cells THP-1 and MUTZ-3, which can be activated, were added to the system and assessed for cytokine release. Intestinal inflammation was mimicked through exposure to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) and interleukin (IL)-1β. The effects were quantified by measuring transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) and proinflammatory cytokine secretion on the apical and basal sides. Cytokines induced an inflammatory state in the culture, as demonstrated by the impaired barrier function and increased IL-8 secretion. Exposure to the known anti-inflammatory drug TPCA-1 prevented the inflammatory state. The model provides biological modularity for key aspects of intestinal inflammation, making use of well-established cell lines. This allows robust assays that can be tailored in complexity to serve all preclinical stages in the drug discovery and development process.