Abstract
It is impossible to analyze human-specific host–microbiome interactions using animal models and existing in vitro methods fail to support survival of human cells in direct contact with complex living microbiota for extended times. Here we describe a protocol for culturing human organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) microfluidic devices lined by human patient-derived primary intestinal epithelium in the presence of a physiologically relevant transluminal hypoxia gradient that enables their coculture with hundreds of different living aerobic and anaerobic bacteria found within the human gut microbiome. This protocol can be adapted to provide different levels of oxygen tension to facilitate coculturing of microbiome from different regions of gastrointestinal tract, and the same system can be applied with any other type of Organ Chip. This method can help to provide further insight into the host–microbiome interactions that contribute to human health and disease, enable discovery of new microbiome-related diagnostics and therapeutics, and provide a novel approach to advanced personalized medicine.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by funding from DARPA, FDA, GATES Foundation (all to D.E.I.) and by the Lush Prize (to S.J-F.).
Conflicts of Interest
D.E.I. holds equity in Emulate, Inc., consults for the company, chairs its scientific advisory board, and is a member of its board of directors.
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Jalili-Firoozinezhad, S., Bein, A., Gazzaniga, F.S., Fadel, C.W., Novak, R., Ingber, D.E. (2022). Establishment of a Modular Anaerobic Human Intestine Chip. In: Rasponi, M. (eds) Organ-on-a-Chip. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2373. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1693-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1693-2_5
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Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
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Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1693-2
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