Physiologically relevant microfluidic model of the synovial-chondral axis
2021
Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria(1)
Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria(2)
Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria(2)
Rheumatoid arthritis is a degenerative disorder of the synovial membrane that leads to joint progressive destruction. This phenomenon is mostly supported and promoted by fibroblast-like synoviocytes. Although models for the interplay between bone-derived cells and synoviocytes already exist, there is still a deficiency of microfluidic 3D models that replicate the pathological interactions in the synovial-chondral axis. Here, human synovial organoids and human chondral organoids were co-cultured in a chip to develop a 3D tissue model to explore the pathological mechanisms underlying rheumatoid arthritis. The results showed that this co-culture system reproduced more faithfully the cartilage physiology and structure and that has a more adjusted cytokine response profile to their in vivo counterpart than normal monocultures of chondrocytes. Overall, the researchers establish a new microfluidic 3D co-culture model with physiological relevance that elucidates the importance of co-culturing different cell types to model arthritic diseases.
Establishment of a human three-dimensional chip-based chondro-synovial co-culture joint model for reciprocal cross-talk studies in arthritis research
Mario Rothbauer(1), Peter Ertl(2)
Added on: 12-02-2021
[1] https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/lc/d1lc00130b
