Organs-on-chips (OoCs) are systems containing engineered or natural miniature tissues grown inside microfluidic chips. To better mimic human physiology, the chips are designed to control cell microenvironments and maintain tissue-specific functions. Combining advances in tissue engineering and microfabrication, OoCs have gained interest as a next-generation experimental platform to investigate human pathophysiology and the effect of therapeutics in the body. There are as many examples of OoCs as there are applications, making it difficult for new researchers to understand what makes one OoC more suited to an application than another.

1. MICROFLUIDIC ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP MODELS:
Prepared by
Prof. C.A. Gulhane
Assistant professor
M Pharm (QA)
Dr. Rajendra Gode Institute of Pharmacy, Amravati

2. Contents
 Introduction
 Organ-on-a-chip technologies
a) Lung on a chip
b) Heart on a chip
c) Gut on a chip
d) Liver on a chip
 Current challenges and future prospectives
 Conclusion
 References

3. Introduction
 The Organ-on-a-Chip (OOC) is a 3D multichannel integrated circuit,
microfluidic cell culture that performs the same physiological responses
and activities as whole organs or organ systems, also known as artificial
organs.
 Organ-on-a-chip system is specifically designed to in vitro perform the
shape and function of multicellular human organs on a microfluidic chip.
Biological organ functions as well as the biochemical, bioelectrical, and
biomechanical characteristics of cellular microenvironments and
extracellular matrix (ECM) are examples of such devices.
 Organ-on-a-chip systems, which may closely resemble in vivo tissues and
serve as platforms for drug delivery assays and biological cell
characterization.

4. ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP TECHNOLOGIES
LUNG-ON-A-CHIP:
INTRODUCTION OF LUNGS:
Lungs are the major organ of the
respiratory system of humans.
Their function in the respiratory system is
to extract oxygen from the air and
transport it to the bloodstream, releasing
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the
gas exchange process. Diseases of lungs
are described in fig.

5. DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES ARE USED FOR THE
FABRICATION OF LUNG-ON-A-CHIP MODELS
Bioprinting of 3D cells
Cells are cultured and differentiation
and maturation of cells
Bioprinting of the cells by using
computer aided layer by layer
deposition
Thermoplastic
methodology
Media reservoirs for smooth muscle
cells, epitheial cells as well as lung
airway microenvironment are required
Cultivated it in the air-liquid interface
by using the temperature

6. Applications of the lung on a chip

7. B) HEART-ON-A-CHIP
Introduction of heart :
 One of the most crucial parts of the human body is the
heart. It gives blood circulation the necessary capacity
to nourish and oxygenate organs while also removing
metabolic waste.
 Heart diseases have recently surpassed all other
causes of death worldwide due to changes in eating
habits and rising blood pressure.
 Establishing disease (or normal) models is necessary
to investigate the pathophysiology of heart disorders
and find viable treatments.
 The animal model's physiological circumstances and
organ functioning are dissimilar from those of a
human. Types of heart diseases are shown in the
adjacent figure:

8. Biomedical applications of heart-on-a-chip
Physiological
research
Disease modeling
Medication
screening
Research on
circulation issues
To research the
pathology of heart
diseases
To study cardiac
electrical
activity

9. C) GUT-ON-A-CHIP
 The human intestine has received a lot of
interest recently because of its important
functions in digestion, absorption, disease
regulation, and immunological function.
 The digestive system is where the majority of
nutrients and oral medications are absorbed. the
intestine acts as a natural defense against
infections and other dangerous bacteria .
 Additionally, several illnesses, including
indigestion, obesity, and immune system harm
are said to be brought on by bacteria in the
human intestine. The diseases which are
associated with the gut are shown in fig.

10. Applications of Gut-on-a-chip
Drug
pharmacokinetic
research
Testing of food
allergens
To study the
nutrient
metabolism
Prediction of
therapeutic
efficacy of drug
Speeding up the
drug
development
To study the
Pathology of gut
diseases

11. D) LIVER-ON-A-CHIP
 The liver, the largest intracorporeal organ in the body,
performs several important tasks, including regulating
blood sugar and ammonia levels, synthesizing various
hormones, and detoxifying both endogenous and
exogenous substances.
 For instance, in clinical trials, around half of the
medications linked to liver damage did not affect
animal models when used in vivo.
 Based on these facts, it is essential to design an
accurate in vitro liver model to fully comprehend the
physiological and pathological processes. The liver
diseases are shown in the adjacent fig.
Diseases of liver

12. Design and Applications of liver-on-a-chip
Design of Liver-on-a-chip
 A promising method to create microscale
functioning liver constructions on a chip,
however, has been made possible by the rapid
advancement of microfabrication and
microfluidic technologies.
 An easy way to create a concentration gradient,
manage cellular spatial distribution, and create a
flow environment, for instance, is via a
microfluidic device.
 To create a liver-on-a-chip using microfluidic
technology for biological and biomedical
purposes, researchers have explored a variety of
ways. That ways are as follows:
 Liver Chips Based on 2D Planar Culture
 Liver Chips Based on Layer-by-Layer
Deposition
 Liver Chips Based on 3D Bioprinting
Applications of Liver-on-a-chip
To study liver
metabolic
function
Drug
screening of
new drug
development
Establishment
of Liver
disease
models
To study the
pathology of
liver diseases
Toxicity
testing

13. Current challenges and Future Prospective
 In general, an organ-on-a-chip system's ultimate goal is to create human-on-a-
chip systems employing human cells and tissues, which can eventually
replace animal testing. To do this, organ-on-a-chip systems' viability,
dependability, controllability, and observability must be increased so that they
may serve as full platforms for drug toxicological and metabolic testing.
 The long-term stability of organ-on-a-chip systems needs to be confirmed for
reliability. It might not cause any undesirable alterations to the properties of
cells.
 The adoption of modularized methodology—a technique for quickly building
highly dependable systems with a variety of needed functions—will be
necessary for the designs of human-on-a-chip systems in the future.

14. Conclusion
 Microfluidics and tissue engineering have combined to create OOC
platforms, which use building blocks of human organs on biochips to mimic
organ physiology and recapitulate organ functionality in vitro.
 To bring this technology to the POC, effective and intimate collaboration
between scientists, physicians, and engineers is required.
 To be adopted by clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry and to speed
up patient treatment, we believe that future OOC devices for POC
applications.
 To save the life of animals from drug toxicity during preclinical study OOC
is replaced with that of animal models.

15. References
 Lucie A. low, Christine Mummery, Brian R.Berridge, Christopher P.Austin, Danilo A.Tangle. A
review on Organ on chips: into the next decade. Article from the journal of Nature reviews drug
history. 10 Sept 2020; 20, pages345–361 (2021).
 Daniel Zongjie Wang, Keekyoung Kim, Kyo-in Koo. Organ-on-a-Chip Platforms for Drug Delivery
and Cell Characterization. A Review. Article in Sensors and Materials journal. April 27, 2015; Vol. 27,
No. 6 :(2015) 487–506.
 Sangeeta N Bhatia, Donald E Ingber. Microfluidic organs-on-chips. Article in nature biotechnology
journal. 2014 Aug;32(8):760-72. 2014 ;32(8):760-72.
 Huh D, Kim HJ, Fraser JP, et al. Microfabrication of human organs-on-chips. Article in Nature
Protocol journal. 10 October 2013; 8: 2135–2137.
 Humayun M, Chow CW, Young E. Microfluidic lung airway-on-a-chip with arrayable suspended gels
for studying epithelial and smooth muscle cell interactions. From the journal Lab on a Chip. 05 Apr
2018; 2018,18, 1298-1309.

16. Thank you