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Review
. 2015 Jun;20(3):201-15.
doi: 10.1177/2211068214557813. Epub 2014 Nov 10.

Biomimetic 3D Tissue Models for Advanced High-Throughput Drug Screening

Ki-Hwan Nam  1 , Alec S T Smith  2 , Saifullah Lone  3 , Sunghoon Kwon  3 , Deok-Ho Kim  4
Affiliations
Review

Biomimetic 3D Tissue Models for Advanced High-Throughput Drug Screening

Ki-Hwan Nam et al. J Lab Autom. 2015 Jun.

Abstract

Most current drug screening assays used to identify new drug candidates are 2D cell-based systems, even though such in vitro assays do not adequately re-create the in vivo complexity of 3D tissues. Inadequate representation of the human tissue environment during a preclinical test can result in inaccurate predictions of compound effects on overall tissue functionality. Screening for compound efficacy by focusing on a single pathway or protein target, coupled with difficulties in maintaining long-term 2D monolayers, can serve to exacerbate these issues when using such simplistic model systems for physiological drug screening applications. Numerous studies have shown that cell responses to drugs in 3D culture are improved from those in 2D, with respect to modeling in vivo tissue functionality, which highlights the advantages of using 3D-based models for preclinical drug screens. In this review, we discuss the development of microengineered 3D tissue models that accurately mimic the physiological properties of native tissue samples and highlight the advantages of using such 3D microtissue models over conventional cell-based assays for future drug screening applications. We also discuss biomimetic 3D environments, based on engineered tissues as potential preclinical models for the development of more predictive drug screening assays for specific disease models.

Keywords: bio-nanotechnology; biomimetic microenvironment; high-throughput drug screening; microengineered 3D tissue models; organ-on-chip.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic diagram illustrating high-throughput drug screening versus high content drug screening of bioactive compounds.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Illustration of high-throughput tissue engineering, highlighting the development of bioengineered tissue models including Cardiac (fibrin-based mini engineered heart tissue (FBMEs) array), Lung (lung-on-a-chip), Kidney (ring closure assay with magnetic levitation), Liver (perfused multiwell bioreactor, 3DKUBE™), Adipose (perfusion bioreactor), Skin (3D in vitro reconstructed skin models: EpiSkin (a), SkinEthic RHE (b), EpiDerm (c), EST1000 (d), Phenion®FT (e), OS-Rep (f), Straticell (g), andStrataTest (h)), and Muscle (Bioartificial muscle (mBAMs) on µposts). Reprinted with permission from each Reference.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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