A pumpless multi‐organ‐on‐a‐chip (MOC) combined with a pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic (PK–PD) model

A multi-organ-on-a-chip (MOC), also known as a human-on-a-chip, aims to simulate whole body response to drugs by connecting microscale cell cultures of multiple tissue types via fluidic channels and reproducing the interaction between them. While several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of MOC at a proof-of-concept level, improvements are needed to enable wider acceptance of such systems; ease of use for general biological researchers, and a mathematical framework to design and interpret the MOC systems. Here, we introduce a pumpless, user-friendly MOC which can be easily assembled and operated, and demonstrate the use of a PK-PD model for interpreting drug's action inside the MOC. The metabolism-dependent anticancer activity of a flavonoid, luteolin, was evaluated in a two-compartment MOC containing the liver (HepG2) and the tumor (HeLa) cells, and the observed anticancer activi…