Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas, Arlington, TX, USA.
Biotechnol J. 2014 Jan;9(1):16-27. doi: 10.1002/biot.201300187. Epub 2013 Dec 4.
Recent advances in integrating microengineering and tissue engineering have generated promising microengineered physiological models for experimental medicine and pharmaceutical research. Here we review the recent development of microengineered physiological systems, or also known as "ogans-on-chips", that reconstitute the physiologically critical features of specific human tissues and organs and their interactions. This technology uses microengineering approaches to construct organ-specific microenvironments, reconstituting tissue structures, tissue-tissue interactions and interfaces, and dynamic mechanical and biochemical stimuli found in specific organs, to direct cells to assemble into functional tissues. We first discuss microengineering approaches to reproduce the key elements of physiologically important, dynamic mechanical microenvironments, biochemical microenvironments, and microarchitectures of specific tissues and organs in microfluidic cell culture systems. This is followed by examples of microengineered individual organ models that incorporate the key elements of physiological microenvironments into single microfluidic cell culture systems to reproduce organ-level functions. Finally, microengineered multiple organ systems that simulate multiple organ interactions to better represent human physiology, including human responses to drugs, is covered in this review. This emerging organs-on-chips technology has the potential to become an alternative to 2D and 3D cell culture and animal models for experimental medicine, human disease modeling, drug development, and toxicology.
近年来，微工程学与组织工程学的融合取得了重大进展，为实验医学和药物研究生成了有前景的微工程生理模型。本文综述了微工程生理系统（也称为“器官芯片”）的最新进展，这些系统重建了特定人体组织和器官的生理关键特征及其相互作用。该技术采用微工程方法构建器官特异性微环境，重建组织结构、组织-组织相互作用和界面，以及特定器官中发现的动态机械和生化刺激，以指导细胞组装成功能性组织。我们首先讨论了在微流控细胞培养系统中重现重要生理动态机械微环境、生化微环境以及特定组织和器官微结构的关键元素的微工程方法。接着介绍了将生理微环境的关键元素纳入单个微流控细胞培养系统以重现器官水平功能的单个器官模型的微工程实例。最后，本文还介绍了模拟多个器官相互作用以更好地代表人体生理学的微工程多器官系统，包括人体对药物的反应。这种新兴的器官芯片技术有望成为实验医学、人类疾病建模、药物开发和毒理学中 2D 和 3D 细胞培养及动物模型的替代方法。
