Mimicking the 3D biology of the osteochondral tissue with microfluidic-based solutions: Breakthroughs towards boosting of drugs testing and discovery

The development of tissue engineering solutions for osteochondral (OC) regeneration has been slowed by technical hurdles related with recapitulating their complex and hierarchical architecture. OC defects refer to damage of both the articular cartilage as well as the underlying subchondral bone. In order to repair an OC tissue defect, the complexity of the bone and cartilage must considered. To help achieving this, microfluidics are converging with TE approaches to open up new treatment possibilities. Microfluidics employ precise micrometer-to-millimeter-scale fluid flows to achieve high-resolution and spatial/temporal controls of the cell microenvironment, providing powerful tools for cell culturing. Herein, we overview the progress of microfluidics for developing 3D in vitro models of OC tissue with special focus on the case of cancer bone metastasis