Engineering organoid microfluidic system for biomedical and health engineering: A review

Abstract

In recent years, organoid technology, i . e ., in vitro three-dimensional (3D) tissue culture, has attracted increasing attention in biomedical engineering. Organoids are cell complexes induced by differentiation of stem cells or organ-progenitor cells in vitro using 3D culture technology. They can replicate the key structural and functional characteristics of the target organs in vivo . With the opening up of this new field of health engineering, there is a need for engineering-system approaches to the production, control, and quantitative analysis of organoids and their microenvironment. Traditional organoid technology has limitations, including lack of physical and chemical microenvironment control, high heterogeneity, complex manual operation, imperfect nutritional supply system, and lack of feasible online analytical technology for the organoids. The introduction of microfluidic chip technology into organoids has overcome many of these limitations and greatly expanded the scope of applications. Engineering organoid microfluidic system has become an interdisciplinary field in biomedical and health engineering. In this review, we summarize the development and culture system of organoids, discuss how microfluidic technology has been used to solve the main technical challenges in organoid research and development, and point out new opportunities and prospects for applications of organoid microfluidic system in drug development and screening, food safety, precision medicine, and other biomedical and health engineering fields.