Translating advances in organ-on-a-chip technology for supporting organs

Abstract

Organ‐on‐a‐chip platforms have recently seen tremendous progress. They have found potential applications in the study of physiology and pathology of tissues, drug toxicity, and development of tissue models for replacement of animal studies. However, their potential role in organ transplantation has hardly been discussed, so far. Organ transplantation represents a major medical advancement of the twenty‐first century, yet it suffers from limitation due to the shortage of organ supply. Very often, organs harvested from donor's body are deemed non‐usable because of being damaged or “marginal”. Recently, developments of bioartificial devices such as artificial placenta and renal assist‐devices have shown that it is possible to develop novel bioartificial organ support systems that can support the healing of damaged or marginal organs prior to their transplantation. In the current article, we introduce a novel concept for building bioartificial organ assist devices and systems by integrating arrays of numerous organ‐on‐a‐chip platforms. The new system can be used in organ repair centers as means for temporary organ support and functional enhancement. We have also briefly reviewed the relevant organ‐on‐a‐chip platforms developed so far, and related literature to form a basis for developing our new concept, device and its application. The proposed system may help to increase the number of organs available for transplantation and improve transplantation outcomes. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 2006–2018, 2019.