Alternative organ model as a substitute for animal experiments

Animal Welfare Research Award: Liver on chip replaces animal experiments

The Animal Welfare Research Award of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) goes to Jena this year: Federal Minister of Agriculture Christian Schmidt Alexander Mosig from the University of Jena and his research group Inspire were awarded for their research on alternative methods.

Millions of superfluous animal experiments

According to EU statistics, more than 11 million animals were used for research and development in 2011, most of them in tests. According to some experts, animal experiments in medicine are completely unnecessary, but countless animals worldwide are still dying for the testing of drugs or even chemicals and cosmetics. It is therefore gratifying that many researchers are working on alternatives to animal experiments. One of them is dr. Alexander Mosig from the University Hospital Jena. The scientist has now been awarded the Animal Welfare Research Award.

The Animal Welfare Research Award of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) this year goes to Dr. Ing. Alexander Mosig from the University Hospital Jena. His work helps reduce animal testing. (Image: Henrik Dolle / fotolia.com)

Suitable alternatives to animal experiments

The scientist PD Dr. Alexander Mosig from the University Hospital Jena has been awarded the Animal Welfare Research Award of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

The award honors the biochips developed by the researcher and his research group, which can be used, for example, to reconstruct blood vessels, the intestine and the liver.

Initial studies show that organ models based on these chips are suitable alternatives to animal experiments. For example, they can be used to investigate the consequences of a bacterial infection or new drugs.

Liver from tanks and tubes

Small fluid tanks are connected to the plastic slide, narrow cavities in its interior connected to inflows and outflows - the appearance of the biochip is far from that of a human liver.

But in function, the model comes very close to the organ. For not only are all relevant cell types of the liver structurally correctly arranged in it, the cells also fulfill their metabolic and tissue functions - and that over several weeks.

The small tanks and hoses are the key to ensuring the right flow conditions in the chip organ.

"Using a microfluidic system, we can provide a realistic perfusion that enables specific communication between cell types and mutual stabilization," said Alexander Mosig in a statement from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. "With the help of sensors, we can even regulate the oxygen saturation in a targeted manner."

The tissue models of human organs, developed by the 41-year-old biochemist and his research group Inspire at the Center for Sepsis and Sepsis Sequences of the University of Jena, can be used to specifically investigate aspects of organ functions under laboratory conditions.

So far this was only possible in animal experiments. Mosig sees the organ chip clearly in the advantage: "We work here with human cells and tissue models, so that the significance of the experiments is much greater than in experiments with rodents."

Organchip technique with potential

The Inspire team has already used organ biochips in collaborative projects with physicians, chemists and pharmacologists, in basic research to study the causes of inflammation and infection, as well as to develop new therapeutic options.

For example, they developed the model of a liver whose function is disturbed due to inflammation. The "liver on the chip" showed specific immune reactions and was also capable of regeneration processes.

The organchip technique also flowed into the development of a human cancer model that elucidated the mechanism of action of an anti-tumor substance.

For the testing of nanocarriers as drug carriers, the scientists around Mosig have recreated the blood-brain barrier on the chip.

They are working on a model of this barrier between the circulatory system and the central nervous system, which has important aspects of inflammatory nerve diseases and should be used in the optimization of drug delivery systems.

"We were able to use our organ chip systems several times instead of animal experiments and thus contribute to the reduction and avoidance of animal experiments," said the award winner.

"Our group is working on gut, lung, bone and kidney organ models to establish technology as an alternative to animal testing for infection research, drug testing and, in the future, toxicological studies."

Animal Protection Research Award

For this commitment Alexander Mosig received this year's Animal Welfare Research Award, which is endowed with 25,000 euros. For the 36th time, the BMEL awards the prize to innovative, scientific papers that can be used to reduce or replace animal experiments.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Christian Schmidt said at the award ceremony: "My goal is to limit animal testing to the indispensable level and to provide experimental animals with the best possible protection."

According to the BMEL, according to the current legal situation, animal experiments may only be carried out if they are indispensable for one of the purposes permitted by the Animal Protection Act.

The experts believe that, despite numerous successes in the development of alternative methods to animal testing according to the current state of scientific knowledge on animal experiments can not be waived yet.

This means that alternative methods to animal experiments must be further researched in order to completely replace or reduce the number of animal experiments. (Ad)