Organs-on-chips go vascular
Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection - An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Barbara Stagno, CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation
July 2017

 “As therapies for human diseases become ever more sophisticated and specifically targeted, it becomes increasingly important to understand the potential limitations of extrapolating data from mice to humans. The literature is littered with examples of therapies that work well in mice but fail to provide similar efficacy in humans.”

The continued failure of animal experiments to produce effective drugs and treatments for human conditions has led to the development of “organs-on-chips.” The chips utilize the latest bioengineering techniques combined with living human cells, resulting in microdevices that can reproduce the workings of human organs.

organs on chips

Organs-on-chips are quickly revolutionizing biomedical research with their ability to enhance the study of human diseases by mimicking the intricate function of whole complex organs and specialized disease models.

Now a team of researchers at University of California Irvine (UCI) has developed organs-on-chips with new features that boosts their effectiveness for screening drugs.

Led by Christopher C.W. Hughes, a professor of biochemistry and microbiology at UCI, the research team has successfully created organs-on-chips containing blood vessels, bringing them closer to simulating a true living system.

microtumor
A vascularized microtumor. Vessels are stained in red and tumor cells in green. Photo credit: Hughes Lab

Says Dr. Hughes: "This is truly a unique platform - we have recreated in a dish the key element common to all tissues, which is that they depend on blood vessels for their survival. This feature is missing in all previously described in vitro organ cultures."

The micro-chips are set up on a 96-well plate, with each well functioning much like a single test tube. This makes them usable for large-scale drug screening.

A blood substitute is pumped through the vascular network, transporting nutrients to various tissues like the heart, brain and lung.

tissue tests

Tests run in the Hughes labs demonstrated that these miniature tissues can reproduce the human response to drugs in a way that is superior to prior model systems.

Professor Hughes has good reason to be enthusiastic about the development of organs-on-chips. He is also the author of the 2004 article “Of Mice and Not Men” which discussed the significant differences between the biology of mice and humans.

In his article he wrote: “As therapies for human diseases become ever more sophisticated and specifically targeted, it becomes increasingly important to understand the potential limitations of extrapolating data from mice to humans. The literature is littered with examples of therapies that work well in mice but fail to provide similar efficacy in humans.”

lab mice

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research (CAARE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals. 


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