Development of a Pumpless Microfluidic System to Study the Interaction between Gut Microbes and Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Gut microbiota dysbiosis and intestinal epithelial cell barrier dysfunction are associated with diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and type 2 diabetes. To study the interaction of gut microbes and intestinal epithelial cells, in vitro model systems for co-culturing intestinal cells and gut microbes are essential. Since most gut microorganisms are anaerobic bacteria, it is difficult to co-culture microbes with intestinal epithelial cells that require oxygen during culture. We have developed a novel gut microbialepithelial cell (GMEC) co-culture system, a microfluidic chip in an anaerobic chamber with oxygen gradient within the chip. Appropriate co-culture flow rates were determined based on the experimental observation as well as fluid dynamics and molecular transport simulations. Using GMEC system, Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus plantarum were co-cultured with gut epithelial cell line, Caco-2. We expect that our GMEC co-culture system can potentially be a useful platform for studying the interaction between intestinal epithelial cells and gut microbes.