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Fig. 7 | BioMedical Engineering OnLine

Fig. 7

From: Organ-on-a-chip: recent breakthroughs and future prospects

Fig. 7

(reprinted with permission from [125] Copyright © 2019, Elsevier)

Tissue sources for the organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) devices. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and adult stem cells (ASCs) can be differentiated and integrated into microfluidic chips as for cell lines and primary cells. The figure illustrates the advantages (white) and limitations (black) of ESCs, ASCs, iPSCs, primordial and tissue biopsies, and cell lines in OOC devices. Cell lines and primary cells are more common in oocytes as they typically display good biological response characteristics. However, cell lines do not represent normal physiological conditions and primary cell culture time is limited, and the quality is unstable. In contrast, stem cells are readily available and are an infinite cell source. Even with current limitations on differentiation and maturation protocols, stem cells represent a promising technology that can be incorporated into OOC devices

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