Organs on microfluidic chips: A mini review

Microfluidic technology provides opportunities to create in vitro models with physiological microenvironment for cell study. Introducing the identified key aspects, including tissue-tissue interfaces, spatiotemporal chemical gradients, and dynamic mechanical forces, of living organs into the microfluidic system, organs-on-chips display an unprecedented application potential in a lot of biological fields such as fundamental physiological and pathophysiological research, drug efficacy and toxicity testing, and clinical diagnosis. Here, we review the recent development of organs-on-chips and briefly discuss their future challenges.