ePoster

Development of an organ-on-chip platform for the co-culture of mouse organotypic brain slices with endothelial cells

Tando Maduna, Yasin Ilgaz, Atocha Guedán, Ciro De Luca, Assunta Virtuoso, Giovanni Cirillo, Alan Morin, Julia Sepulveda Diaz, Michele Papa, Fivos Panetsos, José Pérez-Rigueiro, Andreas Vlachos
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Tando Maduna, Yasin Ilgaz, Atocha Guedán, Ciro De Luca, Assunta Virtuoso, Giovanni Cirillo, Alan Morin, Julia Sepulveda Diaz, Michele Papa, Fivos Panetsos, José Pérez-Rigueiro, Andreas Vlachos

Abstract

Organ-on-chip (OoC) technologies are designed to mimic natural structure and function of organs. Integrating microfluidics to OoCs allows long-term perfusion and stability, essential for cultivating physiological conditions similar to intact organs. However, current OoC systems predominantly use primary cell cultures over organotypic tissue cultures (OTCs) or entire organs, due to the absence of extensive microvasculature. This limitation compromises the viability of larger tissue volumes as they suffer from inadequate oxygen and nutrient delivery, along with the absence of perfusion. This study aims at establishing an advanced OoC platform for optimal tissue engineering, through co-culturing OTCs with a microvasculature embedded in functionalized silk fibers. We present an OoC with precise thermal flow sensors essential for routine culture and experimentation with mouse entorhino-hippocampal OTCs, currently undergoing validation against traditional culture methods. Cell viability, structural and cytoarchitectural integrity are evaluated with immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. OoC effects on glial activation and neuroinflammation are examined through imaging, and protein and gene expression assays. For co-culture experiments, we seeded Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells (BMECs) onto porous membrane inserts until they reached confluence. OTCs were then placed onto the BMEC layer and co-cultured for 18 days. The viability of OTCs was evaluated using Propidium Iodide staining. Our work successfully established an advanced OoC platform using OTCs, confirming viability whether they were co-cultured with BMECs or not. This is an important step toward a neuro-vasculature OoC platform using functionalized silk fibers for cell delivery and advanced organ engineering.

Unique ID: fens-24/development-organ-on-chip-platform-e51b7746