University of Texas at Austin, Texas, United States
Monitoring and end-point high-content imaging (HCI) of organoids are the key to better understanding the impact of drug administration on their development and morphology. Currently, platforms that enable both monitoring and HCI of organoids in a fast manner are missing. Such devices would need organoids to be fully immobilized at predetermined locations and distributed in a limited distance from the microscope objective to facilitate high-resolution, fast and blur-free imaging. Here, we used Matrigel-embedded intestinal organoids sourced directly from canine intestinal biopsy samples and cultured them on our previously designed platform, the OrganoidChip. Organoids grew at a predetermined area with a limited height for 7 days. Following this step, a transferless end-point fluorescence live and dead viability assay was performed by digesting the Matrigel and immobilizing the organoids within the trapping areas of the same chip. Our study shows similar growth rates and cell viability between the off- and on-chip organoids. Furthermore, the OrganoidChip saves an enormous amount of time that is otherwise required in the conventional platforms for locating the organoids within the multiwell plate and various steps of fluorescence staining. Thus, we propose the OrganoidChip as an state-of-the-art platform that enables both organoid culturing and high-resolution imaging for imaging-based drug testing assays.