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Advancing Human-Relevant Systems to Reduce Reliance on Animal Models
Integrated • Predictive • Translational
Accelerating Smarter, More Human-Relevant Medicine
Case of Studies
Turning Human-Relevant Models into Translational Evidence
Explore how advanced 3D culture systems, dynamic microphysiological platforms, and structured analytics can generate more predictive, human-relevant data for disease modeling, drug response, and translational decision-making.
Dynamic Culture Preserves Explanted Skeletal Muscle Architecture
Explanted tissues can provide highly relevant experimental models because they retain the structural complexity of native organs.
However, their use in biomedical research is often limited by rapid deterioration under standard static culture conditions.
In this study, explanted mouse soleus muscles were maintained either in conventional multiwell plates or under fluid dynamic culture using an IVTech LiveFlow bioreactor system.
Structural preservation was evaluated over 6, 24, and 48 hours using light and transmission electron microscopy. Compared with static culture, dynamic flow conditions markedly slowed tissue deterioration.
After 24 hours, muscles cultured under flow still retained recognizable sarcomere organization, preserved mitochondria, sarcoplasmic reticulum, and glycogen deposits, while conventional culture showed cytoskeletal disruption, swollen organelles, and glycogen loss.
Even at 48 hours, dynamic culture better preserved mitochondrial morphology and nuclear integrity.
This case study highlights the value of fluid dynamic culture systems for extending the usability of explanted tissues, supporting more physiologically relevant ex vivo models for biomedical research, drug testing, safety assessment, and reduction of animal use.
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Reference
Incubation under fluid dynamic conditions markedly improves the structural preservation in vitro of explanted skeletal muscles
Carton F., et al., Eur J Histochem. (2017)
Dynamic In Vitro Models for Digestion & Metabolism
The gastrointestinal tract is a highly dynamic system where digestion, absorption, metabolism, and tissue–tissue communication are shaped by fluid flow, mechanical stimulation, and cross-organ signaling.
Conventional static models can provide useful information, but they often fail to capture the physiological complexity that influences intestinal barrier function, compound transport, and metabolic responses.
This case study highlights the use of IVTech dynamic and modular fluidic platforms to create more physiologically relevant in vitro models of the digestive system.
Caco-2 intestinal epithelial models cultured under flow enabled improved assessment of intestinal permeability and P-glycoprotein activity, showing a stronger curcumin-mediated inhibitory effect under dynamic conditions.
A two-compartment gastric–intestinal model using GIST-882 and Caco-2 cells allowed simulation of methylglyoxal digestion and metabolism across sequential GI compartments.
In a separate multi-organ model of central obesity, interconnected hepatic, adipose, and endothelial compartments supported the study of lipid metabolism, inflammatory signaling, and endothelial stress.
Together, these examples demonstrate how dynamic culture and modular multi-organ systems can increase the biological relevance of in vitro models, enabling researchers to study digestion, absorption, metabolism, and disease-associated tissue crosstalk in a more integrated and translationally meaningful way.
