Abstract

Anaerobic Microbiota Cultivation by Gut on a Chip Developed from Highly Transparent Thermoplastic and Off-Stoichiometry Thiol-ene Polymer

Artis Galvanovskis, Student, Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre

The gut microbiota and its products play a critical role in human health and in many physiological processes. An altered microbiota can lead to various diseases like autoimmune disorders, metabolic disorders and cancer. Therefore, there is an urgent need for in vitro test platforms for human microbiota, but the current research methods are limited. A promising, new method currently in microbiota research is the gut on-chip (GOC). However, the usual chips from polydimethylsiloxane are not suited for research of anaerobic microbiota due to their gas permeability and small molecular absorption. To tackle this problem, we developed GOC from highly transparent thermoplastic and Off-stoichiometry thiol-ene polymer, both materials have low gas permeability and low small molecule absorption. This approach allows us to create an oxygen gradient from an aerobic endothelial channel to the anaerobic channel representing the gut lumen. Therefore, this study aims to use alternative materials for GOC microfabrication and test this GOC for anaerobic microbiota cultivation. Additionally, we established anaerobic microbiota isolation from stool samples using GutAlive kit. Currently, we are optimizing the cultivation process of isolated microbiota from stool samples in anaerobic conditions in our GOC with CACO2 and HUVEC cells.