Modeling the measurements of cellular fluxes in microbioreactor devices using thin enzyme electrodes

Circadian hormone control in a human-on-a-chip: In vitro biology's ignored component?

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.

Microengineered cell and tissue systems for drug screening and toxicology applications: Evolution of in-vitro liver technologies

The liver performs many key functions, the most prominent of which is serving as the metabolic hub of the body. For this reason, the liver is the focal point of many investigations aimed at understanding an organism's toxicological response to endogenous and exogenous challenges. Because so many drug failures have involved direct liver toxicity or other organ toxicity from liver generated metabolites, the pharmaceutical industry has constantly sought superior, predictive in-vitro models that can more quickly and efficiently identify problematic drug candidates before they incur major development costs, and certainly before they are released to the public. In this broad review, we present a survey and critical comparison of in-vitro liver technologies along a broad spectrum, but focus on the current renewed push to develop "organs-on-a-chip". One prominent set of conclusions from this review is that while a large body of recent work has steered the field towards an ever more comprehensive understanding of what is needed, the field remains in great need of several key advances, including establishment of standard characterization methods, enhanced technologies that mimic the in-vivo cellular environment, and better computational approaches to bridge the gap between the in-vitro and in-vivo results.

Computational modeling of mediator oxidation by oxygen in an amperometric glucose biosensor

In this paper, an amperometric glucose biosensor is modeled numerically. The model is based on non-stationary reaction-diffusion type equations. The model consists of four layers. An enzyme layer lies directly on a working electrode surface. The enzyme layer is attached to an electrode by a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coated terylene membrane. This membrane is modeled as a PVA layer and a terylene layer, which have different diffusivities. The fourth layer of the model is the diffusion layer, which is modeled using the Nernst approach. The system of partial differential equations is solved numerically using the finite difference technique. The operation of the biosensor was analyzed computationally with special emphasis on the biosensor response sensitivity to oxygen when the experiment was carried out in aerobic conditions. Particularly, numerical experiments show that the overall biosensor response sensitivity to oxygen is insignificant. The simulation results qualitatively explain and confirm the experimentally observed biosensor behavior.

Multianalyte Microphysiometry of Macrophage Responses to Phorbol Myristate Acetate, Lipopolysaccharide, and Lipoarabinomannan

This study examined the hypothesis that mycobacterial antigens generate different metabolic responses in macrophages as compared to gram-negative effectors and macrophage activators. The metabolic activation of macrophages by PMA is a useful tool for studying virulent agents and can be compared to other effectors. While phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) is commonly used to study macrophage activation, the concentration used to create this physiological response varies. The response of RAW-264.7 macrophages is concentration-dependent, where the metabolic response to high concentrations of PMA decreases suggesting deactivation. The gram-negative effector, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), was seen to promote glucose and oxygen production which were used to produce a delayed onset of oxidative burst. Pre-incubation with interferon-γ (IFN-γ) increased the effect on cell metabolism, where the synergistic effects of IFN-γ and LPS immediately initiated oxidative burst. These studies exhibited a stark contrast with lipoarabinomannan (LAM), an antigenic glycolipid component associated with the bacterial genus Mycobacterium. The presence of LAM effectively inhibits any metabolic response preventing consumption of glucose and oxygen for the promotion of oxidative burst and to ensure pathogenic proliferation. This study demonstrates for the first time the immediate inhibitory metabolic effects LAM has on macrophages, suggesting implications for future intervention studies with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Application of multianalyte microphysiometry to characterize macrophage metabolic responses to oxidized LDL and effects of an apoA-1 mimetic

Although the interaction of macrophages with oxidized low density liopoprotein (oxLDL) is critical to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, relatively little is known about their metabolic response to oxLDL. Our development of the multianalyte microphysiometer (MAMP) allows for simultaneous measurement of extracellular metabolic substrates and products in real-time. Here, we use the MAMP to study changes in the metabolic rates of RAW-264.7 cells undergoing respiratory burst in response to oxLDL. These studies indicate that short duration exposure of macrophages to oxLDL results in time-dependent increases in glucose and oxygen consumption and in lactate production and extracellular acidification rate. Since apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and apoA-I mimetics prevent experimental atherosclerosis, we hypothesized that the metabolic response of the macrophage during respiratory burst can be modulated by apoA-I mimetics. We tested this hypothesis by examining the effects of the apoA-I peptide mimetic, L-4F, alone and complexed with 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) on the macrophage metabolic response to oxLDL. L-4F and the DMPC/L-4F complexes attenuated the macrophage respiratory burst in response to oxLDL. The MAMP provides a novel approach for studying macrophage ligand-receptor interactions and cellular metabolism and our results provide new insights into the metabolic effects of oxLDL and mechanism of action of apoA-I mimetics.