The study of epithelial barrier function is essential for fundamental understanding of disease processes, development of new therapeutic treatments, and investigation of compound safety.  Epithelial models are widely studied in in vitro environments and easily assayable in laboratory settings. The gold standard barrier integrity measurement is the Trans Epithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER). The electrical properties of an epithelial layer are in a direct correlation to aspects such as tight junctions, confluency, layer thickness, and many morphological parameters. 

In our poster, presented by Arnaud Nicolas at the SLAS2021 Digital Conference, we demonstrate the use of the OrganoTEER® instrument to study epithelium cultured in an organ-on-a-chip platform. Up to 96 tubules cultured in an OrganoPlate® can be exposed to cues such as toxicant exposure, flow and (mixed) co-cultures. We further show the implementation of TEER measurements on an Organ-on-a-Chip platform and compared it to live imaging-based permeability measurements. Based on these results, we propose this system for the study of healthy and damaged models of most barrier tissues in a non-invasive way, providing a valuable tool for drug toxicity and transport studies in Organ-on-a-Chip models.

 

Read more about the OrganoTEER®