Abstract

Blood Vessels-on-Chips

Andries van der Meer, Associate Professor, University of Twente, Scientific lead, Organ-on-Chip Center Twente

The total surface area of blood vessel wall in the human body is more than 1,000 m2, equal to more than five tennis courts. The vessel wall is not simply a physical barrier between blood and surrounding tissue, it is also a remarkably plastic structure, which plays a key role in the pathophysiology of many diseases. Organs-on-chips are ideal platforms to model blood vessel biology in vitro, because they allow researchers to set defined and dynamic patterns of flow, pressure, geometry and levels of oxygen, all of which are essential aspects of blood vessel physiology. Moreover, organs-on-chips enable the controlled co-culture between blood vessel tissue and neighboring tissues and matrices, ultimately allowing studies of disease mechanisms. In this talk, I will show how blood vessel tissue, primarily endothelial cells, can be integrated in organs-on-chips to realistically mimic blood vessel physiology. Moreover, I will show how exposing these blood vessels to activating stimuli, like inflammatory cytokines, can induce vascular adhesion molecule expression, vascular leakage and thrombosis. Finally, I will discuss how organ-on-chip technology allows the engineering of ‘personalized’ in vitro models of blood vessels by mimicking 3D vessel structures based on medical imaging, perfusion of blood samples spiked with disease-related cytokines and incorporation of vascular tissue derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.