Isolation, Integration, and Culture of Human Mature Adipocytes Leveraging Organ-on-Chip Technology

Abstract

Research on white adipose tissue (WAT), which constitutes one-fifth to one-half of the total body mass of a human's body, has gained more and more interest and attention in the era of "diabesity". In vitro research on mature human WAT is hampered by many challenges and, hence, a majority of WAT-related research is conducted using animal models as well as clinical observations and genome-wide association studies (GWAS), both featuring limitations in terms of translatability and potential for experimental interventions, respectively. Here, we describe methods to isolate primary mature human adipocytes from biopsies and to fabricate tailored organ-on-chip platforms for the long-term culture of WAT constructs.

Keywords: Fat-on-chip; Microfluidics; Microphysiological systems; Organ-on-chip; Primary adipocytes; WAT-on-chip; White adipose tissue.