Retinal Microvasculature-on-a-Chip for Modeling VEGF-Induced Permeability

Abstract

Relevant human in vitro models of the retinal microvasculature can be used to study the role of disease mediators on retinal barrier dysfunction and assess the efficacy of early drug candidates. This chapter describes an organ-on-a-chip model of the retinal microvasculature that allows for facile quantification of barrier permeability in response to leakage mediators, such as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), and enables screening of VEGF-induced permeability inhibitors. This chapter also presents an automated confocal imaging method for the visualization of endothelial tube morphology as an additional measure of barrier integrity.

Keywords: 3D model; Advanced in vitro model; Blood-retinal barrier; High content imaging; Microvasculature; Organ-on-a-chip; VEGF-induced leakage; Vascular permeability.