Scientists have also created similar 'organ chips', 'biological cycle chips' and 'stem cell chips'. However, unlike those chips, the microfluidic device built by MIT can simulate several major drugs. The influence of vital organs, not the single organ of the liver.
According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this microfluidic platform houses a variety of human cells and then lets liquids flow inside it to simulate blood flow. This microfluidic device is made of plastic and can simulate the circulatory system in the human body. The unit also contains a water storage device to limit moisture evaporation and maintain humidity, and a pump unit is embedded under the platform.
The latest version of the 'human body chip' device can integrate cells from 10 different organs, including liver, lung, intestine, endometrial, brain, heart, pancreas, kidney, skin and skeletal muscle. Scientists also It is able to precisely control the flow rate of molecular exchange and the distribution of drugs. This device can be used multiple times, and in the research conducted by MIT, the 'human organs' in this device was maintained for up to 4 weeks.
Research co-author Linda Griffith said: 'Our advantage of this platform is to be able to scale up or down, and to adapt to many different configurations. I think it is just a transitional device and it will become more cost competitive in the future. Force, because the information you get will be more valuable. '
According to the MIT Technical Review magazine, scientists can use this device to track the response of different organ models to painkillers. Moreover, in the future, this device may allow scientists to no longer rely on animals such as rats for early detection. The drug test. In addition, drug testing on an organ model can also more accurately reflect the body's actual response to the drug because of differences in the size and composition of the animal's organs and our human organs.
Griffith puts it: 'When testing on animals, some of these effects are very unpredictable, because they are a bit special. With our human body chip, you can let the drugs disperse and observe the effects of drugs on organ tissues, and measure them. The speed of metabolism. '
According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sometimes due to some of the patient's own differences, there are complications after medication, such as genetic differences, environmental effects, lifestyle and other medications taken. Griffith explained: 'A lot of time you Unable to find drug problems, only to be discovered on a large scale market.
This physiology chip created by MIT not only provides a new way for early testing of drugs, but it can also serve as a direction of improvement for similar devices on the market today. According to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in this device Before the advent of the world, no one could successfully connect many different organizations to the same platform.
In addition, most platforms are closed systems, which makes it difficult to control what happens within those platforms. In fact, this kind of human body chip device created by MIT is an open system that removes Lid and can make it easy for scientists to manipulate or take samples for analysis.