Pump-Less, Recirculating Organ-on-Chip (rOoC) Platform to Model the Metabolic Crosstalk between Islets and Liver.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) are epidemiologically correlated disorders with a worldwide growing prevalence. While the mechanisms leading to the onset and development of these conditions are not fully understood, predictive tissue representations for studying the coordinated interactions between central organs that regulate energy metabolism, particularly the liver and pancreatic islets, are needed. Here, a dual pump-less recirculating organ-on-chip platform that combines human pluripotent stem cell (sc)-derived sc-liver and sc-islet organoids is presented.

Modelling human liver microphysiology on a chip through a finite element based design approach.

Organ-on-a-chip (OoaC) are microfluidic devices capable of growing living tissue and replicate the intricate microenvironments of human organs in vitro, being heralded as having the potential to revolutionize biological research and healthcare by providing unprecedented control over fluid flow, relevant tissue to volume ratio, compatibility with high-resolution content screening and a reduced footprint. Finite element modelling is proven to be an efficient approach to simulate the microenvironments of OoaC devices, and may be used to study the existing correlations between geometry and hydrodynamics, towards developing devices of greater accuracy. The present work aims to refine a steady-state gradient generator for the development of a more relevant human liver model.