Organ-On-a-Chip devices: Technology Progress and Challenges.

Organ-On-a-Chip (OOC) is a multichannel 3D-microfluidic cell-culture system included in a chip that stimulates the behavior of an organ. This technology relies on a multidisciplinary science benefiting from and helping in the progress of many fields including microbiology, microfluidics, biomaterials, and bioengineering. This review article summarizes the progress and achievements of various organ-on-chip technologies. It highlights the significant advantages of this technology in terms of reducing animal testing and providing personalized medical responses. In addition, this paper demonstrates how OOC is becoming a promising and powerful tool in pharmaceutical research to combat diseases. It predicts not only the effects of drugs on the target organs but also, using body-on-a-chip systems, it may provide insights into the side effects of the drug delivery on the other organs. Likewise, the models used for the construction of various organ-on-a-chip are investigated along with the design and materials of microfluidic devices. For each OOC, the integrated monitoring devices within the chips (e.g., sensors and biosensors) are discussed. We also discussed the evolution of FDA regulations and the potential in the near future for integrating OOCs in protocols approval that support and reduce the need and the failure rates in preclinical and clinical studies.

Surface modification of silicone intraocular implants to inhibit cell proliferation.

Photo-cross-linkable polymers bearing cinnamic, sulfonate, and carboxylate groups were synthesized by radical polymerization leading to randomly distributed copolymers. These polymers were used to coat silicone intraocular lenses in order to reduce posterior capsule opacification, also named "secondary cataract". We previously demonstrated that polymers containing both carboxylate and sulfonate groups inhibit cell proliferation, and formulations with the ratio R = COO-/(COO- + SO3-) equal to 0.64 provided the highest inhibitory effect. Ionic polymers with this formulation were synthesized to contain a monomer with pendant siloxane groups in order to get compatibility with the silicone matrix of the intraocular lenses. Anchorage of the ionic polymer at the surface of the silicone implant was achieved by a cycloaddition reaction of the photosensitive groups according to two options. These modified silicone surfaces grafted onto intraocular lenses were shown to inhibit cell proliferation to 60%.