Microfluidic Gut-on-a-Chip: Fundamentals and Challenges

Abstract

The human gut is responsible for food digestion and absorption. Recently, growing evidence has shown its vital role in the proper functioning of other organs. Advances in microfluidic technologies have made a significant impact on the biomedical field. Specifically, organ-on-a-chip technology (OoC), which has become a popular substitute for animal models, is capable of imitating complex systems in vitro and has been used to study pathology and pharmacology. Over the past decade, reviews published focused more on the applications and prospects of gut-on-a-chip (GOC) technology, but the challenges and solutions to these limitations were often overlooked. In this review, we cover the physiology of the human gut and review the engineering approaches of GOC. Fundamentals of GOC models including materials and fabrication, cell types, stimuli and gut microbiota are thoroughly reviewed. We discuss the present GOC model applications, challenges, possible solutions and prospects for the GOC models and technology.

Untangling Complexity: Gut Microbiota, Metabolites, and Fiber Intake in Type 2 Diabetes

“…Moreover, this technology holds promise for advancing personalized medicine approaches, for example, by utilizing patient samples for testing medication responses. 8 Overall, the findings of Wang et al substantially contribute to unraveling the intricate links between dietary fiber intake, gut microbiota composition, microbial functional components, and circulating metabolites. This heightened understanding provides valuable insights into the complex mechanisms underlying the development of T2D.…”

“…Moreover, this technology holds promise for advancing personalized medicine approaches, for example, by utilizing patient samples for testing medication responses. 8…”

Intestinal retentive systems – recent advances and emerging approaches

“…123 These systems can simulate in vivo fluidic flow, peristalsis-like motions, host-microbe crosstalk, and multi-cell type interactions, making them highly valuable for personalized medicine applications. Noteworthy contributions to this area of research can be found in the works of Xiang et al 124 and Thomas et al , 125 who have provided detailed discussions on gut-on-a-chip in vitro models. Additionally, several in vitro models have been specifically designed to replicate the presence of mucus in the gut, offering accurate and controlled testing environments for mucoadhesive devices.…”

Next‐generation liquid biopsy instruments: Challenges and opportunities

“…As discussed in the previous text, the CTCs, ctDNA, and exosomes contain rich information about tumor characteristics. Nevertheless, these biomarkers are all released into large blood cell backgrounds from the primary tumor or metastatic deposits, causing their extremely low content in peripheral blood [19]. Moreover, many of these biomarkers have similar biophysical characteristics to normal blood components.…”

“…This approach provides a CTC detection specificity of >99% and sensitivity of >97%. As the detection of circulating cell-free nucleic acids depends on molecular biology techniques that are complex to operate and require additional analytical platforms (such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction [PCR], BEAMing, Safe-SeqS, and CAPP-Seq) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], LB-based instruments are commonly used to extract cell-free nucleic acids. For example, the KingFisher Flex (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) instrument has been applied for cfDNA extraction from blood samples based on the magnetic enrichment technique [23], wherein cfDNA becomes positively charged by magnetic beads that bind to the negatively charged phosphate DNA backbone.…”