Qiu Linjie, Kong Bin, Kong Tiantian, Wang Huan
The Eighth Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat-Sen University Shenzhen China.
School of Medicine Sun Yat-Sen University Shenzhen China.
Smart Med. 2023 Feb 12;2(1):e20220010. doi: 10.1002/SMMD.20220010. eCollection 2023 Feb.
The liver is a multifunctional organ and the metabolic center of the human body. Most drugs and toxins are metabolized in the liver, resulting in varying degrees of hepatotoxicity. The damage of liver will seriously affect human health, so it is very important to study the prevention and treatment of liver diseases. At present, there are many research studies in this field. However, most of them are based on animal models, which are limited by the time-consuming processes and species difference between human and animals. In recent years, liver-on-chips have emerged and developed rapidly and are expected to replace animal models. Liver-on-chips refer to the use of a small number of liver cells on the chips to simulate the liver microenvironment and ultrastructure in vivo. They hold extensive applications in multiple fields by reproducing the unique physiological functions of the liver in vitro. In this review, we first introduced the physiology and pathology of liver and then described the cell system of liver-on-chips, the chip-based liver models, and the applications of liver-on-chips in liver transplantation, drug screening, and metabolic evaluation. Finally, we discussed the currently encountered challenges and future trends in liver-on-chips.
肝脏是一个多功能器官，也是人体的代谢中心。大多数药物和毒素在肝脏中进行代谢，从而导致不同程度的肝毒性。肝脏损伤会严重影响人体健康，因此研究肝脏疾病的防治具有重要意义。目前，该领域已有许多研究。然而，其中大多数是基于动物模型，受限于耗时的过程以及人与动物之间的物种差异。近年来，芯片肝脏模型应运而生并迅速发展，有望取代动物模型。芯片肝脏模型是指利用芯片上的少量肝细胞来模拟体内肝脏微环境和超微结构。通过在体外重现肝脏独特的生理功能，它们在多个领域有着广泛的应用。在这篇综述中，我们首先介绍了肝脏的生理学和病理学，然后描述了芯片肝脏模型的细胞系统、基于芯片的肝脏模型，以及芯片肝脏模型在肝移植、药物筛选和代谢评估中的应用。最后，我们讨论了芯片肝脏模型目前面临的挑战和未来趋势。
