Organ-on-a-chip and the kidney

Publication date: Available online 20 August 2015 Source:Kidney Research and Clinical Practice Author(s): Sejoong Kim, Shuichi Takayama Traditional approach to the pathophysiology is advancing, but still has many limitations that arise from the real biologic systems and its associated physiological phenomena being too complicated. Microfluidics is a novel technology developed in the engineering field, which provides new options that may overcome these hurdles. Microfluidics handles small volumes of fluids and may apply to various applications, such as DNA analysis chips, other lab-on-a-chip analysis, micro-propulsion, and micro-thermal technologies. Among them, organ-on-a-chip applications allow fabrication of minimal functional units of a single organ or multiple organs. Relevant to the field of nephrology, renal tubular cells have been integrated with microfluidic devices for making kidneys-on-a-chip. Although still early in development, kidneys-on-a-chip are showing potential to provide a better understanding of the kidney to replace some traditional animal and human studies, particularly as more cell types are incorporated towards development of a complete glomeruli-on-a-chip.
Source: Kidney Research and Clinical Practice - Category: Urology & Nephrology Source Type: research