Abstract

Development of in vitro Mucosal Interface in a Multi-well Plate

Jungwoo Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) accounts for more than 75% of the body surface that directly contact with daily ingested foods along with microbes to absorb nutrients and water while keeping essential barrier function. This makes the GIT the prime site for the host-microbiome interactions where the host deploys about 80% of immune cells to protect and maintain homeostasis. The GIT epithelium consists of a monolayer of polarized cells arranged into microscopic features that increase the GIT surface area tremendously. Recent studies suggest that peristaltic motion would be critical for epithelial cell differentiation, polarization and structural arrange-ment into villi and crypts. Some progress has been made in recent times, there is still a growing need to develop model systems to integrate microbiome, epithelial cells, and immune cells in a single platform along with providing sufficient level of biological and mechanical complexity. To this end, we developed a mechanically actuated 3D tissue culture model system that can achieve the aforementioned integration of different cell types with multiple layer complexity in an easily adaptable well plate platform. In this study we demonstrate how this platform was used to mechanically stimulate colon carcinoma cells (HT-29) leading to polarization, vertical growth and 3D morphogenesis of these cells.