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Schaffner D, Lazaro A, Deibert P, Hasselblatt P, Stoll P, Fauth L, Baumstark MW, Merfort I, Schmitt-Graeff A, Kreisel W. Analysis of the nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway in experimental liver cirrhosis suggests phosphodiesterase-5 as potential target to treat portal hypertension. World J Gastroenterol 2018; 24:4356-4368. [PMID: 30344420 PMCID: PMC6189851 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i38.4356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2018] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
AIM To investigate the potential effect of inhibitors of phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) for therapy of portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis.
METHODS In the rat model of thioacetamide-induced liver fibrosis/cirrhosis the nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (NO-cGMP) pathway was investigated. Expression and localization of PDE-5, the enzyme that converts vasodilating cGMP into inactive 5’-GMP, was in the focus of the study. Hepatic gene expression of key components of the NO-cGMP pathway was determined by qRT-PCR: Endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), inducible NO synthase (iNOS), soluble guanylate cyclase subunits α1 and β1 (sGCa1, sGCb1), and PDE-5. Hepatic PDE-5 protein expression and localization were detected by immunohistochemistry. Serum cGMP concentrations were measured using ELISA. Acute effects of the PDE-5 inhibitor Sildenafil (0.1 mg/kg or 1.0 mg/kg) on portal and systemic hemodynamics were investigated using pressure transducers.
RESULTS Hepatic gene expression of eNOS (2.2-fold; P = 0.003), sGCa1 (1.7-fold; P = 0.003), sGCb1 (3.0-fold; P = 0.003), and PDE-5 (11-fold; P = 0.003) was increased in cirrhotic livers compared to healthy livers. Overexpression of PDE-5 (7.7-fold; P = 0.006) was less pronounced in fibrotic livers. iNOS expression was only detected in fibrotic and cirrhotic livers. In healthy liver, PDE-5 protein was localized primarily in zone 3 hepatocytes and to a lesser extent in perisinusoidal cells. This zonation was disturbed in cirrhosis: PDE-5 protein expression in perisinusoidal cells was induced approximately 8-fold. In addition, PDE-5-expressing cells were also found in fibrous septa. Serum cGMP concentrations were reduced in rats with cirrhotic livers by approximately 40%. Inhibition of PDE-5 by Sildenafil caused a significant increase in serum cGMP concentrations [+ 64% in healthy rats (P = 0.024), + 85% in cirrhotic rats (P = 0.018)]. Concomitantly, the portal venous pressure was reduced by 19% in rats with liver cirrhosis.
CONCLUSION Overexpression and abrogated zonation of PDE-5 likely contribute to the pathogenesis of cirrhotic portal hypertension. PDE-5 inhibition may therefore be a reasonable therapeutic approach for portal hypertension.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Cyclic GMP/blood
- Cyclic GMP/metabolism
- Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 5/metabolism
- Guanosine Monophosphate/metabolism
- Humans
- Hypertension, Portal/blood
- Hypertension, Portal/drug therapy
- Hypertension, Portal/etiology
- Hypertension, Portal/pathology
- Liver/drug effects
- Liver/metabolism
- Liver/pathology
- Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental/blood
- Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental/chemically induced
- Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental/complications
- Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental/pathology
- Male
- Nitric Oxide/metabolism
- Nitric Oxide Synthase/metabolism
- Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors/pharmacology
- Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors/therapeutic use
- Rats
- Rats, Sprague-Dawley
- Rats, Wistar
- Signal Transduction/drug effects
- Sildenafil Citrate/pharmacology
- Sildenafil Citrate/therapeutic use
- Thioacetamide/toxicity
- Treatment Outcome
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise Schaffner
- Institute for Exercise-und Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79104, Germany
| | - Adhara Lazaro
- Institute for Exercise-und Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Peter Deibert
- Institute for Exercise-und Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Peter Hasselblatt
- Department of Medicine II, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology, and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Patrick Stoll
- Anaesthesiological Practice, Freiburg 79104, Germany
| | - Lisa Fauth
- Institute of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Manfred W Baumstark
- Institute for Exercise-und Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Irmgard Merfort
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79104, Germany
| | - Annette Schmitt-Graeff
- Institute of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Kreisel
- Department of Medicine II, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology, and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
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Li X, George SM, Vernetti L, Gough AH, Taylor DL. A glass-based, continuously zonated and vascularized human liver acinus microphysiological system (vLAMPS) designed for experimental modeling of diseases and ADME/TOX. LAB ON A CHIP 2018; 18:2614-2631. [PMID: 30063238 PMCID: PMC6113686 DOI: 10.1039/c8lc00418h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
The vLAMPS is a human, biomimetic liver MPS, in which the ECM and cell seeding of the intermediate layer prior to assembly, simplifies construction of the model and makes the platform user-friendly. This primarily glass microfluidic device is optimal for real-time imaging, while minimizing the binding of hydrophobic drugs/biologics to the materials that constitute the device. The assembly of the three layered device with primary human hepatocytes and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), and human cell lines for stellate and Kupffer cells, creates a vascular channel separated from the hepatic channel (chamber) by a porous membrane that allows communication between channels, recapitulating the 3D structure of the liver acinus. The vascular channel can be used to deliver drugs, immune cells, as well as various circulating cells and other factors to a stand-alone liver MPS and/or to couple the liver MPS to other organ MPS. We have successfully created continuous oxygen zonation by controlling the flow rates of media in the distinct vascular and hepatic channels and validated the computational modeling of zonation with oxygen sensitive and insensitive beads. This allows the direct investigation of the role of zonation in physiology, toxicology and disease progression. The vascular channel is lined with human LSECs, recapitulating partial immunologic functions within the liver sinusoid, including the activation of LSECs, promoting the binding of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) followed by transmigration into the hepatic chamber. The vLAMPS is a valuable platform to investigate the functions of the healthy and diseased human liver using all primary human cell types and/or iPSC-derived cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Li
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
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53
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Knittelfelder O, Traikov S, Vvedenskaya O, Schuhmann A, Segeletz S, Shevchenko A, Shevchenko A. Shotgun Lipidomics Combined with Laser Capture Microdissection: A Tool To Analyze Histological Zones in Cryosections of Tissues. Anal Chem 2018; 90:9868-9878. [PMID: 30004672 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Shotgun analysis provides a quantitative snapshot of the lipidome composition of cells, tissues, or model organisms; however, it does not elucidate the spatial distribution of lipids. Here we demonstrate that shotgun analysis could quantify low-picomole amounts of lipids isolated by laser capture microdissection (LCM) of hundred micrometer-sized histological zones visualized at the cryosections of tissues. We identified metabolically distinct periportal (pp) and pericentral (pc) zones by immunostaining of 20 μm thick cryosections of a healthy mouse liver. LCM was used to ablate, catapult, and collect the tissue material from 10 to 20 individual zones covering a total area of 0.3-0.5 mm2 and containing ca. 500 cells. Top-down shotgun profiling relying upon computational stitching of 61 targeted selective ion monitoring ( t-SIM) spectra quantified more than 200 lipid species from 17 lipid classes including glycero- and glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, cholesterol esters, and cholesterol. Shotgun LCM revealed the overall commonality of the full lipidome composition of pp and pc zones along with significant ( p < 0.001) difference in the relative abundance of 13 lipid species. Follow-up proteomics analyses of pellets recovered from an aqueous phase saved after the lipid extraction identified 13 known and 7 new protein markers exclusively present in pp or in pc zones and independently validated the specificity of their visualization, isolation, and histological assignment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oskar Knittelfelder
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Sofia Traikov
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Olga Vvedenskaya
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Andrea Schuhmann
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Sandra Segeletz
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Anna Shevchenko
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
| | - Andrej Shevchenko
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics , Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 , 01307 Dresden , Germany
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54
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Underhill GH, Khetani SR. Bioengineered Liver Models for Drug Testing and Cell Differentiation Studies. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol 2018; 5:426-439.e1. [PMID: 29675458 PMCID: PMC5904032 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmgh.2017.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 106] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
In vitro models of the human liver are important for the following: (1) mitigating the risk of drug-induced liver injury to human beings, (2) modeling human liver diseases, (3) elucidating the role of single and combinatorial microenvironmental cues on liver cell function, and (4) enabling cell-based therapies in the clinic. Methods to isolate and culture primary human hepatocytes (PHHs), the gold standard for building human liver models, were developed several decades ago; however, PHHs show a precipitous decline in phenotypic functions in 2-dimensional extracellular matrix-coated conventional culture formats, which does not allow chronic treatment with drugs and other stimuli. The development of several engineering tools, such as cellular microarrays, protein micropatterning, microfluidics, biomaterial scaffolds, and bioprinting, now allow precise control over the cellular microenvironment for enhancing the function of both PHHs and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cells; long-term (4+ weeks) stabilization of hepatocellular function typically requires co-cultivation with liver-derived or non-liver-derived nonparenchymal cell types. In addition, the recent development of liver organoid culture systems can provide a strategy for the enhanced expansion of therapeutically relevant cell types. Here, we discuss advances in engineering approaches for constructing in vitro human liver models that have utility in drug screening and for determining microenvironmental determinants of liver cell differentiation/function. Design features and validation data of representative models are presented to highlight major trends followed by the discussion of pending issues that need to be addressed. Overall, bioengineered liver models have significantly advanced our understanding of liver function and injury, which will prove useful for drug development and ultimately cell-based therapies.
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Key Words
- 3D, 3-dimensional
- BAL, bioartificial liver
- Bioprinting
- CRP, C-reactive protein
- CYP450, cytochrome P450
- Cellular Microarrays
- DILI, drug-induced liver injury
- ECM, extracellular matrix
- HSC, hepatic stellate cell
- Hepatocytes
- IL, interleukin
- KC, Kupffer cell
- LSEC, liver sinusoidal endothelial cell
- MPCC, micropatterned co-culture
- Microfluidics
- Micropatterned Co-Cultures
- NPC, nonparenchymal cell
- PEG, polyethylene glycol
- PHH, primary human hepatocyte
- Spheroids
- iHep, induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cell
- iPS, induced pluripotent stem
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory H. Underhill
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
| | - Salman R. Khetani
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
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55
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Beckwitt CH, Clark AM, Wheeler S, Taylor DL, Stolz DB, Griffith L, Wells A. Liver 'organ on a chip'. Exp Cell Res 2018; 363:15-25. [PMID: 29291400 PMCID: PMC5944300 DOI: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2017.12.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 144] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2017] [Revised: 12/21/2017] [Accepted: 12/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The liver plays critical roles in both homeostasis and pathology. It is the major site of drug metabolism in the body and, as such, a common target for drug-induced toxicity and is susceptible to a wide range of diseases. In contrast to other solid organs, the liver possesses the unique ability to regenerate. The physiological importance and plasticity of this organ make it a crucial system of study to better understand human physiology, disease, and response to exogenous compounds. These aspects have impelled many to develop liver tissue systems for study in isolation outside the body. Herein, we discuss these biologically engineered organoids and microphysiological systems. These aspects have impelled many to develop liver tissue systems for study in isolation outside the body. Herein, we discuss these biologically engineered organoids and microphysiological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin H Beckwitt
- Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; The McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Research and Development Service, VA Pittsburgh Health System, Pittsburgh, PA 15240, USA
| | - Amanda M Clark
- Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Sarah Wheeler
- Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - D Lansing Taylor
- Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; The McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Donna B Stolz
- Cell Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; The McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Linda Griffith
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Alan Wells
- Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; The McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Research and Development Service, VA Pittsburgh Health System, Pittsburgh, PA 15240, USA.
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56
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Cyr KJ, Avaldi OM, Wikswo JP. Circadian hormone control in a human-on-a-chip: In vitro biology's ignored component? Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 2017; 242:1714-1731. [PMID: 29065796 PMCID: PMC5832251 DOI: 10.1177/1535370217732766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Organs-on-Chips (OoCs) are poised to reshape dramatically the study of biology by replicating in vivo the function of individual and coupled human organs. Such microphysiological systems (MPS) have already recreated complex physiological responses necessary to simulate human organ function not evident in two-dimensional in vitro biological experiments. OoC researchers hope to streamline pharmaceutical development, accelerate toxicology studies, limit animal testing, and provide new insights beyond the capability of current biological models. However, to develop a physiologically accurate Human-on-a-Chip, i.e., an MPS homunculus that functions as an interconnected, whole-body, model organ system, one must couple individual OoCs with proper fluidic and metabolic scaling. This will enable the study of the effects of organ-organ interactions on the metabolism of drugs and toxins. Critical to these efforts will be the recapitulation of the complex physiological signals that regulate the endocrine, metabolic, and digestive systems. To date, with the exception of research focused on reproductive organs on chips, most OoC research ignores homuncular endocrine regulation, in particular the circadian rhythms that modulate the function of all organ systems. We outline the importance of cyclic endocrine regulation and the role that it may play in the development of MPS homunculi for the pharmacology, toxicology, and systems biology communities. Moreover, we discuss the critical end-organ hormone interactions that are most relevant for a typical coupled-OoC system, and the possible research applications of a missing endocrine system MicroFormulator (MES-µF) that could impose biological rhythms on in vitro models. By linking OoCs together through chemical messenger systems, advanced physiological phenomena relevant to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics studies can be replicated. The concept of a MES-µF could be applied to other standard cell-culture systems such as well plates, thereby extending the concept of circadian hormonal regulation to much of in vitro biology. Impact statement Historically, cyclic endocrine modulation has been largely ignored within in vitro cell culture, in part because cultured cells typically have their media changed every day or two, precluding hourly adjustment of hormone concentrations to simulate circadian rhythms. As the Organ-on-Chip (OoC) community strives for greater physiological realism, the contribution of hormonal oscillations toward regulation of organ systems has been examined only in the context of reproductive organs, and circadian variation of the breadth of other hormones on most organs remains unaddressed. We illustrate the importance of cyclic endocrine modulation and the role that it plays within individual organ systems. The study of cyclic endocrine modulation within OoC systems will help advance OoC research to the point where it can reliably replicate in vitro key regulatory components of human physiology. This will help translate OoC work into pharmaceutical applications and connect the OoC community with the greater pharmacology and physiology communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin J. Cyr
- Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education
- Systems Biology and Bioengineering Undergraduate Research Experience
| | - Omero M. Avaldi
- Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education
- Systems Biology and Bioengineering Undergraduate Research Experience
| | - John P. Wikswo
- Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education
- Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, 37235, USA
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57
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Watson DE, Hunziker R, Wikswo JP. Fitting tissue chips and microphysiological systems into the grand scheme of medicine, biology, pharmacology, and toxicology. Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 2017; 242:1559-1572. [PMID: 29065799 DOI: 10.1177/1535370217732765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Microphysiological systems (MPS), which include engineered organoids (EOs), single organ/tissue chips (TCs), and multiple organs interconnected to create miniature in vitro models of human physiological systems, are rapidly becoming effective tools for drug development and the mechanistic understanding of tissue physiology and pathophysiology. The second MPS thematic issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine comprises 15 articles by scientists and engineers from the National Institutes of Health, the IQ Consortium, the Food and Drug Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency, an MPS company, and academia. Topics include the progress, challenges, and future of organs-on-chips, dissemination of TCs into Pharma, children's health protection, liver zonation, liver chips and their coupling to interconnected systems, gastrointestinal MPS, maturation of immature cardiomyocytes in a heart-on-a-chip, coculture of multiple cell types in a human skin construct, use of synthetic hydrogels to create EOs that form neural tissue models, the blood-brain barrier-on-a-chip, MPS models of coupled female reproductive organs, coupling MPS devices to create a body-on-a-chip, and the use of a microformulator to recapitulate endocrine circadian rhythms. While MPS hardware has been relatively stable since the last MPS thematic issue, there have been significant advances in cell sourcing, with increased reliance on human-induced pluripotent stem cells, and in characterization of the genetic and functional cell state in MPS bioreactors. There is growing appreciation of the need to minimize perfusate-to-cell-volume ratios and respect physiological scaling of coupled TCs. Questions asked by drug developers are followed by an analysis of the potential value, costs, and needs of Pharma. Of highest value and lowest switching costs may be the development of MPS disease models to aid in the discovery of disease mechanisms; novel compounds including probes, leads, and clinical candidates; and mechanism of action of drug candidates. Impact statement Microphysiological systems (MPS), which include engineered organoids and both individual and coupled organs-on-chips and tissue chips, are a rapidly growing topic of research that addresses the known limitations of conventional cellular monoculture on flat plastic - a well-perfected set of techniques that produces reliable, statistically significant results that may not adequately represent human biology and disease. As reviewed in this article and the others in this thematic issue, MPS research has made notable progress in the past three years in both cell sourcing and characterization. As the field matures, currently identified challenges are being addressed, and new ones are being recognized. Building upon investments by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and Environmental Protection Agency of more than $200 million since 2012 and sizable corporate spending, academic and commercial players in the MPS community are demonstrating their ability to meet the translational challenges required to apply MPS technologies to accelerate drug development and advance toxicology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rosemarie Hunziker
- 2 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - John P Wikswo
- 3 Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, and Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235-1807, USA
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58
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Lee-Montiel FT, George SM, Gough AH, Sharma AD, Wu J, DeBiasio R, Vernetti LA, Taylor DL. Control of oxygen tension recapitulates zone-specific functions in human liver microphysiology systems. Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 2017; 242:1617-1632. [PMID: 28409533 PMCID: PMC5661766 DOI: 10.1177/1535370217703978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2016] [Accepted: 03/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
This article describes our next generation human Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System (LAMPS). The key demonstration of this study was that Zone 1 and Zone 3 microenvironments can be established by controlling the oxygen tension in individual devices over the range of ca. 3 to 13%. The oxygen tension was computationally modeled using input on the microfluidic device dimensions, numbers of cells, oxygen consumption rates of hepatocytes, the diffusion coefficients of oxygen in different materials and the flow rate of media in the MicroPhysiology System (MPS). In addition, the oxygen tension was measured using a ratiometric imaging method with the oxygen sensitive dye, Tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) dichlororuthenium(II) hexahydrate (RTDP) and the oxygen insensitive dye, Alexa 488. The Zone 1 biased functions of oxidative phosphorylation, albumin and urea secretion and Zone 3 biased functions of glycolysis, α1AT secretion, Cyp2E1 expression and acetaminophen toxicity were demonstrated in the respective Zone 1 and Zone 3 MicroPhysiology System. Further improvements in the Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System included improved performance of selected nonparenchymal cells, the inclusion of a porcine liver extracellular matrix to model the Space of Disse, as well as an improved media to support both hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells. In its current form, the Liver Acinus MicroPhysiology System is most amenable to low to medium throughput, acute through chronic studies, including liver disease models, prioritizing compounds for preclinical studies, optimizing chemistry in structure activity relationship (SAR) projects, as well as in rising dose studies for initial dose ranging. Impact statement Oxygen zonation is a critical aspect of liver functions. A human microphysiology system is needed to investigate the impact of zonation on a wide range of liver functions that can be experimentally manipulated. Because oxygen zonation has such diverse physiological effects in the liver, we developed and present a method for computationally modeling and measuring oxygen that can easily be implemented in all MPS models. We have applied this method in a liver MPS in which we are then able to control oxygenation in separate devices and demonstrate that zonation-dependent hepatocyte functions in the MPS recapitulate what is known about in vivo liver physiology. We believe that this advance allows a deep experimental investigation on the role of zonation in liver metabolism and disease. In addition, modeling and measuring oxygen tension will be required as investigators migrate from PDMS to plastic and glass devices.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Subin M George
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,USA
| | - Albert H Gough
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,USA
| | - Anup D Sharma
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,USA
| | - Juanfang Wu
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Richard DeBiasio
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Lawrence A Vernetti
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,USA
| | - D Lansing Taylor
- Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,USA
- Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
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