Abstract
Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of hardening and narrowing arteries, leading to cardiovascular disease accounting for the high mortality in the United States. For developing effective treatments for atherosclerosis, considerable efforts have been devoted to developing in vitro models. Compared to animal models, in vitro models can provide great opportunities to obtain data more efficiently, economically. Therefore, this review discusses the recent progress in in vitro models for atherosclerosis studies, including traditional two-dimensional (2D) systems cultured on the tissue culture plate, 2D cell sheets, and recently emerged microfluidic chip models with 2D culture. In addition, advanced in vitro three-dimensional models such as spheroids, cell-laden hydrogel constructs, tissue-engineered blood vessels, and vessel-on-a-chip will also be covered. Moreover, the functions of these models are also summarized along with model discussion. Lastly, the future perspectives of this field are discussed.
Highlights
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the severest global health concern and the primary leading cause of mortality in the United States, resulting primarily from atherosclerosis [1, 2]
Apart from the simple chip systems only including ECs, Ding et al established a stretchable microfluidic chip model composed of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) layer, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) layer, foam cells, LDL, and a non-uniform stretched chip film to investigate the efficacy of atorvastatin and associated underlining molecular mechanism (Figure 3C)
A considerable number of in vitro models have been developed as potential platforms for studying atherosclerosis mechanisms and exploring new treatment, ranging from a traditional 2D single-cell culture system on tissue culture plates (TCP) (Tables 1, 2) to advanced 3D tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs) and vessel-on-a-chip models (Table 3)
Summary
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the severest global health concern and the primary leading cause of mortality in the United States, resulting primarily from atherosclerosis [1, 2]. The most common 2D in vitro models are single-cell culture systems, which contain only one type of cell component observed in the atherosclerotic plaque, such as ECs, SMCs, macrophages, and foam cells. In addition to the single-cell culture systems, research has been focused on developing co-culture models for atherosclerosis-associated studies.
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