A team of researchers from Tohoku University have successfully reproduced a pathological condition of retinal diseases using the "organ-on-a-chip" approach, which they believe could be used for disease modeling and drug screening as an alternative to animal models.
According to researchers, in vitro cell culture models — or organ-on-a-chip — provide an alternative to animal models for researchers investigating specific molecules and simply recapitulating complex and chronic conditions. While studies on organ-on-a-chip for drug discovery have reportedly been extensively carried out, up until now the organ-on-a-chip approach that targets the ocular tissues has been rarely investigated.
For their study, the research team reportedly first cultured human retinal cells and vascular endothelial cells to mimic the outermost structure of the retina. They reportedly found when retinal cells were exposed to hypoglycemic and hypoxic conditions after the cells had grown up, endothelial cells were found to migrate to the side of retinal cells to damage them. According to researchers, this process partially recapitulates neovascularization in wet-type age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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Source: Tohoku University