The Human Gut Microbiome: From Association to Modulation

Here we describe a method for fabricating a primary human Small Intestine-on-a-Chip (Intestine Chip) containing epithelial cells isolated from healthy regions of intestinal biopsies. The primary epithelial cells are expanded as 3D organoids, dissociated, and cultured on a porous membrane within a microfluidic device with human intestinal microvascular endothelium cultured in a parallel microchannel under flow and cyclic deformation. In the Intestine Chip, the epithelium forms villi-like projections lined by polarized epithelial cells that undergo multi-lineage differentiation similar to that of intestinal organoids, however, these cells expose their apical surfaces to an open lumen and interface with endothelium. Transcriptomic analysis also indicates that the Intestine Chip more closely mimics whole human duodenum in vivo when compared to the duodenal organoids used to create the chips. Because fluids flowing through the lumen of the Intestine Chip can be collected continuously, sequential analysis of fluid samples can be used to quantify nutrient digestion, mucus secretion and establishment of intestinal barrier function over a period of multiple days in vitro. The Intestine Chip therefore may be useful as a research tool for applications where normal intestinal function is crucial, including studies of metabolism, nutrition, infection, and drug pharmacokinetics, as well as personalized medicine.

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Development of a primary human Small Intestine-on-a-Chip using biopsy-derived organoids

The diverse bacterial populations that comprise the commensal microbiome of the human intestine play a central role in health and disease. A method that sustains complex microbial communities in direct contact with living human intestinal cells and their overlying mucus layer in vitro would thus enable the investigation of host-microbiome interactions. Here, we show the extended coculture of living human intestinal epithelium with stable communities of aerobic and anaerobic human gut microbiota, using a microfluidic intestine-on-a-chip that permits the control and real-time assessment of physiologically relevant oxygen gradients. When compared to aerobic coculture conditions, the establishment of a transluminal hypoxia gradient in the chip increased intestinal barrier function and sustained a physiologically relevant level of microbial diversity, consisting of over 200 unique operational taxonomic units from 11 different genera and an abundance of obligate anaerobic bacteria, with ratios of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes similar to those observed in human faeces. The intestine-on-a-chip may serve as a discovery tool for the development of microbiome-related therapeutics, probiotics and nutraceuticals.

/pdf/a-complex-human-gut-microbiome-cultured-in-an-anaerobic-30r4q6hmb9.pdf

A Complex Human-Gut Microbiome Cultured in an Anaerobic Intestine-on-a-Chip

https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10057735

Organs on a chip: a fast-track for engineered human tissues in drug development

Microfluidic organ-on-a-chip models of human intestine have been developed and used to study intestinal physiology and pathophysiology. In this article, we review this field and describe how microfluidic Intestine Chips offer new capabilities not possible with conventional culture systems or organoid cultures, including the ability to analyze contributions of individual cellular, chemical, and physical control parameters one-at-a-time; to coculture human intestinal cells with commensal microbiome for extended times; and to create human-relevant disease models. We also discuss potential future applications of human Intestine Chips, including how they might be used for drug development and personalized medicine.

Microfluidic Organ-on-a-Chip Models of Human Intestine.

We thank the scientists and technical staff of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine and Center for Applied Nanobioscience and Medicine, particularly Matthew Barrett and Brett Duane for their excellent technical assistance and engineering support We are grateful to Francois Bernardin, Nathalie Nicot and Laurent Vallar for the microarray analysis; Aidos Baumuratov for imaging support; Linda Wampach for HuMiX illustrations; and Anna Heintz-Buschart for fruitful discussions This work was supported by an ATTRACT programme grant (ATTRACT/A09/03), a CORE programme grant (CORE/11/BM/1186762), a European Union Joint Programming in Neurodegenerative Diseases grant (INTER/JPND/12/01) and a Proof-of-Concept grant (PoC-15/11014639) to PW, Accompany Measures mobility grant (12/AM2c/05) to PW and PS, an INTER mobility grant to PS (INTER/14/7516918), and an Aide a la Formation Recherche (AFR) postdoctoral grant (AFR/PDR 2013-1/BM/5821107) as well as a CORE programme grant (CORE/14/BM/8066232) to JVF, all funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) This work was further supported by a grant attributed to CS-D by the 'Fondation Recherche sur le SIDA du Luxembourg' Bioinformatics analyses presented in this paper were carried out in part using the HPC facilities of the University of Luxembourg (http://hpcunilu)

/pdf/a-microfluidics-based-in-vitro-model-of-the-gastrointestinal-1b7z9ei6ja.pdf

Magdalena Niegowska

Papers

A microfluidics-based in vitro model of the gastrointestinal human-microbe interface.