ADIPOCYTE-INS1 CROSSTALK: CLOSED LOOP CO-CULTURE MODEL WITH SHEAR MODULATION

Obesity is a prominent public health issue, driven by a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors [1].Moreover, obesity is a primary risk factor for Type II diabetes mellitus [2], a chronic condition characterized by elevated plasma glucose levels resulting from -cell dysfunction and insulin resistance [3].To understand how this systemic metabolic disease develops, both pancreatic beta cells and adipocytes should be studied together instead of individually.Here, we present 3D printed microfluidics with integrated microtesla pumps to create a closed-looped flow over beta and adipocyte co-cultures.Using this platform, we studied the influence of adipose cytokines on INS1 cells and INS1 insulin secretions on adipocytes under shear and glucose conditions [4].Microfluidic-based assays offer distinct advantages with integrated, scalable capabilities across multiple modalities and accurate physiological controls in a single device [5].In this study, we(i) achieved a circulatory co-culture of adipocyte and pancreatic beta cells in a closed loop microfluidic device,(ii) investigated the importance of shear stress in modulating the interactions between adipocytes and beta cells,(iii) studied adipose tissue-derived chemokines in beta cell dysfunction.Our findings highlight the advantages of microfluidic embedded systems for modeling diseases like diabetes, where multimodal measurements offer a more deterministic view of the underlying processes.