A research team from Harvard has been able to carry out direct investigations of health and disease-related human-microbiome interactions, using an “organ-on-a-chip”.
They were able to culture a stable complex human microbiome in direct contact with a vascularised human intestinal epithelium for at least five days.
The “anaerobic intestine chip” stably maintained a microbial diversity similar to that in human faeces over days and a protective physiological barrier that was formed by human intestinal tissue.
Donald Ingber, study lead, said: “The major paradigm shift in medicine over the past decade has been the recognition of the huge role that the microbiome plays in health and disease. This technology now provides a way to study clinically relevant human host-microbiome interactions at the cellular and molecular levels under highly controlled conditions in vitro.
“This method can be used to discover specific microbes that cause disease or that might help prevent conditions.”