Pharmacokinetic-based multi-organ chip for recapitulating organ interactions.

Organ-on-a-chip technology provides a novel in vitro platform with a possibility of reproducing physiological functions of in vivo tissue, more accurately than conventional cell-based model systems. Many newly arising diseases result from complex interaction between multiple organs. By realizing different organ functions on a chip, organ-on-a-chip technology is a potentially useful for building models of such complex diseases. Pharmacokinetic (PK) models provide a mathematical framework for understanding the interaction between organs involving transport and reaction of molecules. Here, we discuss various forms of organ-on-a-chip devices reported so far, with a particular emphasis on multi-organ devices for recapitulating multi-organ interactions. Also, we introduce the concept of PK models, and explain how it can be used to design and analyze multi-organ chip devices.