Joint-on-chip models: Opportunities and challenges in osteoarthritis research

Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) technology has become a game-changer by providing advanced in vitro models of human tissues and organs, allowing thereby conducting a variety of experimentation and assays, ranging from drug testing, toxicity screening, tissue engineering, to disease modeling to, e.g., elucidate mechanisms at play in disease onset and progression. Organ-on-a-chip devices are hybrid models combining cells and microfabricated structures in a microfluidic format, aiming altogether to mimic functional and/or structural features of an organ. OoCs exhibit a number of advantages compared to conventional in vitro and in vivo models: an in vivo–like and tunable microenvironment, dynamic culture, possibility to incorporate a variety of (bio)chemical and (bio)physical cues, with spatial and temporal control thereon, suitability to prepare patient-specific (disease) model, amenability to parallelized and automated studies, and compatibility with routine imaging and molecular assay. As such, OoC is currently acknowledged as a promising technology to reduce and replace experimentation on animals, which are poor mimics of human diseases and physiology.

In my presentation, I will briefly introduce OoC models, discuss their applications for OA research with the development of an integrated joint-on-chip platform, present an overview of models of individual tissues and multi-tissues reported in the literature so far, including research from our group, and finally discuss overall opportunities and remaining challenges towards the establishment of a comprehensive multi-OoC joint-on-chip model.