Development of pressure driven liver-on-a-chip: In vitro long-term perfusion culture of three-dimensional liver tissue

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K19018
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Chemical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Sugiura Shinji 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 生命工学領域, 上級主任研究員 (10399496)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 組織工学 / 細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In recent years, Microphysiological systems have been attracting attention as a next-generation research tool for drug discovery to provide a physiological response using human-derived cells in vitro. In this study, we developed a three-dimensional tissue circulation culture device, which is a microfluidic device capable of culturing while placing a three-dimensional tissue on a porous membrane and applying a pressure gradient on the tissue. When human hepatoma-derived cells HepG2 were cultured using this culture device, the albumin production amount was about 70% of that cultured in the conventional culture dish on the 20th day of the culture, even though the culture area was about 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the monolayer culture in the conventional culture dish.

Free Research Field

生物化学工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

肝臓は薬物代謝の主要な臓器であり、三次元肝組織の灌流培養による臓器機能の長期維持が期待されている。また、我々は圧力駆動型の循環培養による多臓器連結培養について研究する中で、多臓器連結培養系においては培養面積の限られる中での細胞活性の維持が重要との認識を持っている。本研究の成果はこれらの課題の解決につながる一つのアプローチとなると考えられる。産業面では、現時点で創薬分野で利用可能な三次元組織はスフェロイドに限定されていると言ってよく、本研究で開発されたLiver-on-a-chipは、薬物代謝や薬物相互作用を解析するための創薬デバイスとして重要な物となると期待される。