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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
The development of effective preventive therapies for glomerulopathy is critically needed. Current pre-clinical research utilizes in vitro 2D cell cultures and in vivo animal models, both of which present significant limitations. Two-dimensional cultures fail to adequately replicate the complex cellular interactions present in physiological environments, while ethical considerations necessitate a reduction in the use of animal models. Although kidney organoid cultures demonstrate enhanced tissue-specific characteristics, they remain insufficient for a comprehensive evaluation of the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) due to the absence of capillary loop formation. As a complementary approach, the organ-on-chip approach relies on microfluidic to control the organization of the co-culture of differentiated cells (Mittal, Woo et al. 2019, Zhao, Kankala et al. 2019).
We present a glomerulus-on-chip (GoC) fabricated through photolithography, enabling the creation of durable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) culture chambers. This model incorporates dual-layer PDMS systems designed to mimic glomerular architecture, featuring dimensional parameters that are consistent with physiological conditions with a 100μm vascular space and a 50μm urinary space. The GoC utilizes three immortalized human cell types: podocytes (Saleem, O'Hare et al. 2002) and parietal epithelial cells (PECs) (Kietzmann, Guhr et al. 2015) in the lower chamber, and Glomerular Endothelial Cells (GEnC) (Satchell, Tasman et al. 2006) cells on the upper side of the porous membrane.
We propose an innovative opto-microfluidic organ-on-chip that constitutes a unique integrated system to probe complex pathophysiological processes from comprehensive molecular events to cell/tissue functional behavior in a physiologically relevant environment. Our GoC utilizes immortalized human cell types to reconstruct glomerular organization and function and facilitate in situ measurements. The model successfully addresses challenges associated with the maturation of the filtration barrier, e.g., the selective retention of high molecular weight Dextrans was measured, providing a robust platform for investigating intricate cellular interactions and conducting drug screening. Further, the GoC enables the visualization of podocyte-PECs interactions.
Existing commercial systems fail in accurately mimicking the glomerular organization and lack the requisite versatility for systematic screening of diverse stimuli. Our GoC model, characterized by its innovative design and functional filtration capabilities, represents a pivotal advancement in glomerular research. This approach offers a powerful, animal-free platform for pharmacological evaluation and pre-clinical studies, paving the way for novel analyses and therapeutic strategies in kidney pathology. (Abstract submitted to ERA & SFNDT congresses 2025)
