earticle

영어

The aim of this study is to develop an in vitro intestinal system for studying drug absorption and microbial interaction. Human intestinal epithelial cell line (Caco-2) cultured on a petri dish cannot properly reconstitute human intestine because the former is different from the latter in terms of physiological and morphological properties such as epithelial electrical resistance and production of apical brush amino peptidase enzyme.In this presentation, we show that this discrepancy can be reduced by growing Caco-2 cells in microfluidic cell culture device (μFCCD) where a polyester membrane is installed between two PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) layers having microchannels perfusing nutrients. Cells in μFCCD were taller than those in a petri dish, while F-actin in the apical brush border of the former was denser than that in the apical brush border of the latter. The former formed villi-like structures, which were not well observed in those in a petri dish. These results suggest that the microenviroment in μFCCD mimics the in vivo tissue microenvironment and the intestinal cells in the chip can be ready for studying drug absorption as well as host-bacteria interaction.