Microphysiological Systems (MPSs) based on Microfluidics as a Platform for Drug Discovery

Abstract

Microfluidics is a general term describing tools and techniques which utilize microchannels and functional elements to realize high-throughput and high-efficiency chemical reactions and analyses by virtue of the scaling effect. Recently, microphysiological systems (MPSs) based on microfluidics have attracted attention as a platform for drug discovery due to high-accuracy evaluations of efficacy and toxicity of novel drug candidates in non-clinical studies. MPSs of major organs such as the lung, liver, small intestine and kidney have been proposed, and expression and maintenance of cell functions that cannot be achieved by conventional cell culture systems are successfully realized by mimicking the physiological environment. This paper describes previously developed MPSs focusing on the basic concepts of microfluidics.