Vascularized Microfluidic Platform for Skin Toxicity Testing

Norhana Jusoh, Jihoon Ko, Noo Li Jeon

Abstract

In-vitro skin models are highly demanded for drug development and cosmetics testing. As the largest organ, skin serves as an important barrier against exogenous substances penetration and has various critical physiological functions that mostly regulated by capillaries within skin dermis. As the largest organ with epidermis and the dermis, skin serves as an important protective barrier with various physiological functions. Skin is rich with vascular networks that transport nutrients and oxygen to promote cells survival and integration in thick skin tissues. Microfluidic devices have been engineered to mimic tissues and organs to model physiological cellular microenvironment. This organ-on-chip platform has shown great potential as alternatives for replacing animal testing for toxicological applications. Under various physiological and pathological conditions, skin will initiate rapid angiogenesis in generating new blood vessels to restore oxygenation and allow the growth of new tissue. Therefore, in-vitro vascularized skin tissue is highly demanded for toxicity studies. Here we review the development of vascularized microfluidic platform that can be used as alternative platform for further skin toxicity assays in cosmetic and pharmaceutical testing applications.