Liquid‐Suspendable Metabolic Sensors Allow Real‐Time Oxygen Consumption Monitoring in Caco‐2 and Colon Organoid‐Based Gut‐on‐a‐Chip Models
Sarah Devriese, Flavio Bonanini, Anna F. Bekebrede, Sara Shafiei, Dorota Kurek, Coen Govers, Hans Bouwmeester, A. Paul Vos, Remko van Vught, Jaap Keijer, Vincent C. J. de BoerABSTRACT
The organ‐on‐a‐chip field is a rapidly evolving area of expertise, combining enhanced physiological relevance with a wide range of functional readouts across diverse cellular models. One such readout is oxygen metabolism, which serves as a key indicator of mitochondrial function. In this study, we utilized metabolic sensors designed for real‐time measurement of oxygen consumption, reflecting aerobic respiration, within a commercially available microfluidic platform. We demonstrated that time‐resolved detection of oxygen consumption is feasible within the system's microliter‐scale volumes and that chemically induced changes in cellular oxygen metabolism can be monitored in real time in two ready‐to‐use gut‐on‐a‐chip models. In summary, this novel application of metabolic sensors enables direct evaluation of mitochondrial function in complex cellular environments by addressing key analytical challenges often encountered in organ‐on‐a‐chip systems due to their limited size and structural complexity.