A complex human gut microbiome cultured in an anaerobic intestine-on-a-chip
Top Cited Papers
- 13 May 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Biomedical Engineering
- Vol. 3 (7), 520-531
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0397-0
Abstract
The diverse bacterial populations that comprise the commensal microbiome of the human intestine play a central role in health and disease. A method that sustains complex microbial communities in direct contact with living human intestinal cells and their overlying mucus layer in vitro would thus enable the investigation of host–microbiome interactions. Here, we show the extended coculture of living human intestinal epithelium with stable communities of aerobic and anaerobic human gut microbiota, using a microfluidic intestine-on-a-chip that permits the control and real-time assessment of physiologically relevant oxygen gradients. When compared to aerobic coculture conditions, the establishment of a transluminal hypoxia gradient in the chip increased intestinal barrier function and sustained a physiologically relevant level of microbial diversity, consisting of over 200 unique operational taxonomic units from 11 different genera and an abundance of obligate anaerobic bacteria, with ratios of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes similar to those observed in human faeces. The intestine-on-a-chip may serve as a discovery tool for the development of microbiome-related therapeutics, probiotics and nutraceuticals.This publication has 68 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cross-talk between Akkermansia muciniphila and intestinal epithelium controls diet-induced obesityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- phyloseq: An R Package for Reproducible Interactive Analysis and Graphics of Microbiome Census DataPLOS ONE, 2013
- Gut-on-a-Chip microenvironment induces human intestinal cells to undergo villus differentiationIntegrative Biology, 2013
- Gut Immune Maturation Depends on Colonization with a Host-Specific MicrobiotaCell, 2012
- Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiomeNature, 2012
- The human microbiome: at the interface of health and diseaseNature Reviews Genetics, 2012
- The yin yang of bacterial polysaccharides: lessons learned from B. fragilis PSAImmunological Reviews, 2011
- Bacterial biogeography of the human digestive tractScientific Reports, 2011
- Extensive personal human gut microbiota culture collections characterized and manipulated in gnotobiotic miceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- Microbial Community Development in a Dynamic Gut Model Is Reproducible, Colon Region Specific, and Selective for Bacteroidetes and Clostridium Cluster IXApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2010