Structure and function of modular microfluidic device for in-vitro modeling of human organs

Abstract

A method and system to make a modular microfluidic device in a miniaturized form for cell culture, co-culture, and organ-on-a-microfluidic device as in-vitro model of human organs within compartmentalized 3D structures is described. The modular microfluidic device enables co-culturing of heterogeneous cell assemblies that are adjacent or sequentially connected to promote enhanced cell-cell interaction. In vivo-like flow into and/or from one cell growth chamber to adjacent cell growth chamber is maintained by micro-engineered porous barriers i.e., porous walls and membranes. These porous barriers provide a tool for mimicking the paracrine exchange between cells in the human body. The system comprises of a set of microelectrodes for real-time and long-term monitoring and quantitative measurement of the impact of stimuli on the epithelial tissue permeability. The modular microfluidic system provides a platform technology for bio-fabrication of variety of miniaturized in-vitro models for mimicking the structure and function of single and multi-organ models.