Growing Liver Organoids in a Microfluidic Device
Being able to grow liver organoids in a microfluidic device for drug testing in advance of animal or human experiments could speed the process and bring better medicines to health care. This piece describes a microfluidics device from a Harvard professor: “In the first step of the platform, a saline-based solution of hepatocytes, the primary cells that contribute to the liver’s function, flows down a channel until it intersects with a gel-like solution of fibroblasts, the cells found in the liver’s extracellular matrix that secrete collagen and provide structural support to hepatocytes. Due to the chemical properties of the two different solutions and the physics of fluids travelling in narrow spaces, the fibroblasts hug the sides of the channel while the hepatocytes flow down the middle. Next, this mixture of cells intersects with a solution of oil, which acts as a brake and causes a droplet to pinch off. Finally, these newly made droplets meet a mildly acidic solution, which causes their outer gel layer to become set, locking the cells into their respective positions. The end result is a droplet with a watery core filled with hepatocytes and a gelatinous shell comprised of fibroblasts. While droplets containing hepatocytes have previously been created, this is the first time a microfluidic device has been able to produce droplets containing two types of cells confined to different regions, with high viability, in a highly reproducible way, and at such a fast speed.” MORE
Image Credit: News/Harvard University