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Contribution to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) of bacterial overgrowth in gut on a chip

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

Contributions of microbiome and mechanical deformation to intestinal bacterial overgrowth and inflammation in a 

Contributions of microbiome and mechanical deformation to intestinal bacterial overgrowth and inflammation in a human gut-on-a-chip
Hyun Jung Kima,1, Hu Lia,2, James J. Collinsa,b,c,d,e,f,3, and Donald E. Ingbera,g,h,
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/12/09/1522193112.full.pdf

A human gut-on-a-chip microdevice was used to coculture multiple commensal microbes in contact with living human intestinal epithelial cells for more than a week in vitro and to analyze how gut microbiome, inflammatory cells, and peristalsis-associated mechanical deformations independently contribute to intestinal bacterial overgrowth and inflammation. This in vitro model replicated results from past animal and human studies, including demonstration that probiotic and antibiotic therapies can suppress villus injury induced by pathogenic bacteria. By ceasing peristalsis-like motions while maintaining luminal flow, lack of epithelial deformation was shown to trigger bacterial overgrowth similar to that observed in patients with ileus and inflammatory bowel disease. Analysis of intestinal inflammation on-chip revealed that immune cells and lipopolysaccharide endotoxin together stimulate epithelial cells to produce four proinflammatory cytokines (IL-8, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) that are necessary and sufficient to induce villus injury and compromise intestinal barrier function. Thus, this human gut-on-a-chip can be used to analyze contributions of microbiome to intestinal pathophysiology and dissect disease mechanisms in a controlled manner that is not possible using existing in vitro systems or animal models.

Significance The main advance of this study is the development of a microengineered model of human intestinal inflammation and bacterial overgrowth that permits analysis of individual contributors to the pathophysiology of intestinal diseases, such as ileus and inflammatory bowel disease, over a period of weeks in vitro. By studying living human intestinal epithelium, with or without vascular and lymphatic endothelium, immune cells, and mechanical deformation, as well as living microbiome and pathogenic microbes, we identified previously unknown contributions of specific cytokines, mechanical motions, and microbiome to intestinal inflammation, bacterial overgrowth, and control of barrier function. We provide proof-of-principle to show that the microfluidic gut-on-a-chip device can be used to create human intestinal disease models and gain new insights into gut pathophysiology.

Various types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, involve chronic inflammation of human intestine with mucosal injury and villus destruction (1), which is believed to be caused by complex interactions between gut microbiome (including commensal and pathogenic microbes) (2), intestinal mucosa, and immune components (3). Suppression of peristalsis also has been strongly associated with intestinal pathology, inflammation (4, 5), and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (5, 6) in patients with Crohn’s disease (7) and ileus (8). However, it has not been possible to study the relative contributions of these different potential contributing factors to human intestinal inflammatory diseases, because it is not possible to independently control these parameters in animal studies or in vitro models. In particular, given the recent recognition of the central role of the intestinal microbiome in human health and disease, including intestinal disorders (2), it is critical to incorporate commensal microbes into experimental models; however, this has not been possible using conventional culture systems. Most models of human intestinal inflammatory diseases rely either on culturing an intestinal epithelial cell monolayer in static Transwell culture (9) or maintaining intact explanted human intestinal mucosa ex vivo (10) and then adding live microbes and immune cells to the apical (luminal) or basolateral (mucosal) sides of the cultures, respectively. These static in vitro methods, however, do not effectively recapitulate the pathophysiology of human IBD. For example, intestinal epithelial cells cultured in Transwell plates completely fail to undergo villus differentiation, produce mucus, or form the various specialized cell types of normal intestine. Although higher levels of intestinal differentiation can be obtained using recently developed 3D organoid cultures (11), it is not possible to expose these cells to physiological peristalsis-like motions or living microbiome in long-term culture, because bacterial overgrowth occurs rapidly (within ∼1 d) compromising the epithelium (12). This is a major limitation because establishment of stable symbiosis between the epithelium and resident gut microbiome as observed in the normal intestine is crucial for studying inflammatory disease initiation and progression (13), and rhythmical mechanical deformations driven by peristalsis are required to both maintain normal epithelial differentiation (14) and restrain microbial overgrowth in the intestine in vivo (15).

Thus, we set out to develop an experimental model that would overcome these limitations. To do this, we adapted a recently described human gut-on-a-chip microfluidic device that enables human intestinal epithelial cells (Caco-2) to be cultured in the presence of physiologically relevant luminal flow and peristalsislike mechanical deformations, which promotes formation of intestinal villi lined by all four epithelial cell lineages of the small intestine (absorptive, goblet, enteroendocrine, and Paneth) (12, 16). These villi also have enhanced barrier function, drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450 activity, and apical mucus secretion compared with the same cells grown in conventional Transwell cultures, which made it possible to coculture a probiotic gut microbe (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) in direct contact with the intestinal epithelium for more than 2 wk (12), in contrast to static Transwell cultures (17) or organoid cultures (11) that lose viability within hours under similar conditions. In the present study, we leveraged this human gut-on-a-chip to develop a disease model of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and inflammation. We analyzed how probiotic and pathogenic bacteria, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), immune cells, inflammatory cytokines, vascular endothelial cells and mechanical forces contribute individually, and in combination, to intestinal inflammation, villus injury, and compromise of epithelial barrier function. We also explored whether we could replicate the protective effects of clinical probiotic and antibiotic therapies on-chip to demonstrate its potential use as an in vitro tool for drug development, as well as for dissecting fundamental disease mechanisms.

Fig. 1. The human gut-on-a-chip microfluidic device and changes in phenotype resulting from different culture conditions on-chip, as measured using genome-wide gene profiling. (A) A photograph of the device. Blue and red dyes fill the upper and lower microchannels, respectively. (B) A schematic of a 3D cross-section of the device showing how repeated suction to side channels (gray arrows) exerts peristalsis-like cyclic mechanical strain and fluid flow (white arrows) generates a shear stress in the perpendicular direction. (C) A DIC micrograph showing intestinal basal crypt (red arrow) and villi (white arrow) formed by human Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells grown for ∼100 h in the gut-on-achip under medium flow (30 μL/h) and cyclic mechanical stretching (10%, 0.15 Hz). (Scale bar, 50 μm.) (D) A confocal immunofluorescence image showing a horizontal cross-section of intestinal villi similar to those shown in Fig. 1C, stained for F-actin (green) that labels the apical brush border of these polarized intestinal epithelial cells (nuclei in blue). (Scale bar, 50 μm.) (E) Hierarchical clustering analysis of genome-wide transcriptome profiles (Top) of Caco-2 cells cultured in the static Transwell, the gut-on-a-chip (with fluid flow at 30 μL/h and mechanical deformations at 10%, 0.15 Hz) (Gut Chip), or the mechanically active gut-on-a-chip cocultured with the VSL#3 formulation containing eight probiotic gut microbes (Gut Chip + VSL#3) for 72 h compared with normal human small intestinal tissues (Duodenum, Jejunum, and Ileum; microarray data from the published GEO database). The dendrogram was generated based on the averages calculated across all replicates, and all branches in the cluster have the approximately unbiased (AU) P value equal to 100. The y axis next to the dendrogram represents the metric for Euclidean distance between samples. Corresponding pseudocolored GEDI maps analyzing profiles of 650 metagenes between samples described above (Bottom).

Fig. 2. Reconstitution of pathological intestinal injury induced by interplay between nonpathogenic or pathogenic enteroinvasive E. coli bacteria or LPS endotoxin with immune cells. (A) DIC images showing that the normal villus morphology of the intestinal epithelium cultured on-chip (Control) is lost within 24 h after EIEC (serotype O124:NM) are added to the apical channel of the chip (+EIEC; red arrows indicate bacterial colonies). (B) Effects of GFP-EC, LPS (15 μg/mL), EIEC, or no addition (Control) on intestinal barrier function (Left). Right shows the TEER profiles in the presence of human PBMCs (+PBMC). GFP-EC, LPS, and EIEC were added to the apical channel (intestinal lumen) at 4, 12, and 35 h, respectively, and PBMCs were subsequently introduced through the lower capillary channel at 44 h after the onset of experiment (0 h) (n = 4). (C) Morphological analysis of intestinal villus damage in response to addition of GFP-EC, LPS, and EIEC in the absence (−PBMC) or the presence of immune components (+PBMC). Schematics (experimental setup), phase contrast images (horizontal view, taken at 57 h after onset), and fluorescence confocal micrographs (vertical cross-sectional views at 83 h after onset) were sequentially displayed. F-actin and nuclei were coded with magenta and blue, respectively. (D) Quantification of intestinal injury evaluated by measuring changes in lesion area (Top; n = 30) and the height of the villi (Bottom; n = 50) in the absence (white) or the presence (gray) of PBMCs. Intestinal villi were grown in the gut-on-a-chip under trickling flow (30 μL/h) with cyclic deformations (10%, 0.15 Hz) during the preculture period for ∼100 h before stimulation (0 h, onset). Asterisks indicate statistical significance compared with the control at the same time point (*P < 0.001, **P < 0.05). (Scale bars, 50 μm.)

Recapitulating Organ-Level Intestinal Inflammatory Responses. During inflammation in the intestine, pathophysiological recruitment of circulating immune cells is regulated via activation of the underlying vascular endothelium. To analyze this organ-level inflammatory response in our in vitro model, a monolayer of human microvascular endothelial cells (Fig. 3 C and D and Fig. S6 A and C) or lymphatic endothelial cells (Fig. S6 B and C) was cultured on the opposite (abluminal) side of the porous ECM-coated membrane in the lower microchannel of the device to effectively create a vascular channel (Fig. 3C). To induce intestinal inflammatory responses, LPS (Fig. 3 C and D) or TNF-α (Fig. S6) was flowed through the upper epithelial channel for 24 h, and then PBMCs were added to the vascular channel for 1 h without flow (Fig. 3 C and D). Treatment with both LPS (or TNF-α) and PBMCs resulted in the activation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression on the surface of the endothelium (Fig. 3 C and D, Left, and Fig. S6) and a significant increase (P < 0.001) in the number of PBMCs that adhered to the surface of the capillary endothelium compared with controls (Fig. 3D). These results are consistent with our qPCR results, which also showed up-regulation of genes involved in immune cell trafficking (Fig. S5). Neither addition of LPS nor PBMCs alone was sufficient to induce ICAM-1 expression in these cells (Fig. 3D), which parallels the effects of LPS and PBMCs on epithelial production of inflammatory cytokines (Fig. 3A) as well as on villus injury (Fig. 2 B and D).

Evaluating Antiinflammatory Probiotic and Antibiotic Therapeutics On-Chip. To investigate how the gut microbiome modulates these inflammatory reactions, we cocultured the human intestinal villi with the eight strains of probiotic bacteria in the VSL#3 formulation that significantly enhanced intestinal differentiation (Fig. 1E and Fig. S1B). To mimic the in vivo situation, we colonized our microengineered gut on a chip with the commensal microbes (VSL#3) first and then subsequently added immune cells (PBMCs), pathogenic bacteria (EIEC), or both in combination. The VSL#3 microbial cells inoculated into the germ-free lumen of the epithelial channel primarily grew as discrete microcolonies in the spaces between adjacent villi (Fig. 4A and Movie S3) for more than a week in culture (Fig. S7A), and no planktonic growth was detected. These microbes did not overgrow like the EIEC (Fig. 2A and Movie S2), although occasional microcolonies also appeared at different spatial locations in association with the tips of the villi (Fig. S7 B and C). The presence of these living components of the normal gut microbiome significantly enhanced (P < 0.001) intestinal barrier function, producing more than a 50% increase in TEER relative to control cultures (Fig. 4B) without altering villus morphology (Fig. 4C). This result is consistent with clinical studies suggesting that probiotics, including VSL#3, can significantly enhance intestinal barrier function in vivo (18).

To mimic the effects of antibiotic therapies that are sometimes used clinically in patients with intestinal inflammatory disease (29), we identified a dose and combination of antibiotics (100 units per mL penicillin and 100 μg/mL streptomycin) that produced effective killing of both EIEC and VSL#3 microbes in liquid cultures (Fig. S9) and then injected this drug mixture into the epithelial channel of guton-a-chip devices infected with EIEC. When we added PBMCs to these devices 1 h later, intestinal barrier function (Fig. 4B) and villus morphology (Fig. 4C) were largely protected from injury, and there was a significant reduction in lesion area (Fig. 4D). Thus, the gut-on-a-chip was able to mimic suppression of injury responses previously observed clinically using other antibiotics that produce similar bactericidal effects.

Analyzing Mechanical Contributions to Bacterial Overgrowth. Finally, we used the gut-on-a-chip to analyze whether physical changes in peristalsis or villus motility contribute to intestinal pathologies, such as the small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) (5, 6) observed in patients with ileus (8) and IBD (7). When the GFPEC bacteria were cultured on the villus epithelium under normal flow (30 μL/h), but in the absence of the physiological cyclic mechanical deformations, the number of colonized bacteria was significantly higher (P < 0.001) compared with gut chips that experienced mechanical deformations (Fig. 5A). Bacterial cell densities more than doubled within 21 h when cultured under conditions without cyclic stretching compared with gut chips that experienced physiological peristalsis-like mechanical motions, even though luminal flow was maintained constant (Fig. 5B). Thus, cessation of epithelial distortion appears to be sufficient to trigger bacterial overgrowth, and motility-induced luminal fluid flow is not the causative factor as assumed previously (7).

Discussion One of the critical prerequisites for mimicking the living human intestine in vitro is to establish a stable ecosystem containing physiologically differentiated intestinal epithelium, gut bacteria, and immune cells that can be cultured for many days to weeks. Here we leveraged a mechanically active gut-on-a-chip microfluidic device to develop an in vitro model of human intestinal inflammation that permits stable long-term coculture of commensal microbes of the gut microbiome with intestinal epithelial cells. The synthetic model of the human living intestine we built recapitulated the minimal set of structures and functions necessary to mimic key features of human intestinal pathophysiology during chronic inflammation and bacterial overgrowth including epithelial and vascular inflammatory processes and destruction of intestinal villi.