A gut-on-a-chip study: Enabling on-demand manipulation of the outer cell microenvironment in a multicompartmental 3D culture array

This paper reports a novel approach to build large arrays of cell-laden hydrogel microcompartments with well-controlled fluid flow to mimic the gut environment. Human intestinal epithelial cells (Caco-2) that were cultured in ~500 discontinuous compartments spontaneously grew into 3D folds on day 3. Mimicking interaction between intestinal eptithelial cells and intestinal bacteria was demonstrated in a long-term co-culture of E. coli adhered to Caco-2, the viability of which remained >70%. Also, different compartment geometries with large and small hydrogel interfaces were found to affect proliferation and cell spreading of Caco-2.