Vasculature-On-A-Chip for In Vitro Disease Models

Abstract

Vascularization, the formation of new blood vessels, is an essential biological process. As the vasculature is involved in various fundamental physiological phenomena and closely related to several human diseases, it is imperative that substantial research is conducted on characterizing the vasculature and its related diseases. A significant evolution has been made to describe the vascularization process so that in vitro recapitulation of vascularization is possible. The current microfluidic systems allow elaborative research on the effects of various cues for vascularization, and furthermore, in vitro technologies have a great potential for being applied to the vascular disease models for studying pathological events and developing drug screening platforms. Here, we review methods of fabrication for microfluidic assays and inducing factors for vascularization. We also discuss applications using engineered vasculature such as in vitro vascular disease models, vasculature in organ-on-chips and drug screening platforms.

Inventions and Innovations in Preclinical Platforms for Cancer Research

“…As a science and technology, microfluidics can be used for various fluid mechanics applications, including slip flow in superhydrophobic microchannels [69,70] and drag reduction [71][72][73]. In parallel, microfluidic systems hold great promise for cell biology [74], assisted reproductive technology (ART) [75], drug delivery systems [76], anti-cancer drug screening [77] and disease modelling [78]. Recently, microfluidic platforms for spheroid formation and culture have been thoroughly reviewed by our group [13].…”

Inventions and Innovations in Preclinical Platforms for Cancer Research

“…As a science and technology, microfluidics can be used for various fluid mechanics applications, including slip flow in superhydrophobic microchannels [67,68] and drag reduction [69][70][71]. In parallel, microfluidic systems hold great promise for cell biology [72], assisted reproductive technology (ART) [73], drug delivery systems [74], anti-cancer drug screening [75] and disease modeling [76]. Recently, microfluidic platforms for spheroid formation and culture have been thoroughly reviewed by our group [8].…”

Microfluidics for Cancer Nanomedicine: From Fabrication to Evaluation

“…Tissues and organs on chips are microscale units built on microfluidic chips mimicking tissue‐ or organ‐level physiological architectures and biological functions . On‐chip vessels, livers, kidneys, lungs, and hearts have been engineered, and some have been used as novel drug‐testing models, which may eliminate both the cross‐species difference associated with animal models and the physiological irrelevance in 2D cell cultures . Compared to conventional 2D cell models, these microfluidic models have been shown to more accurately predict drug performance .…”

“…Therefore, it is crucial to understand the relationship between vessel permeability and transvascular transport of sDDSs to enhance sDDS accumulation and efficacy at the tumor site. Although vessel permeability has been tested using animal models, and conventional transwell assays and cell‐culture methods have also been used to measure the permeability of endothelial monolayers, these static assays do not consider the effects of hemodynamics on endothelial permeability, which has been proven to significantly influence the transvascular transport of NPs in vivo …”