KAIST researchers developed a bio-microfluidic system (organ-on-a-chip) that can precisely replicate in the lab how drug-induced muscle injury leads to subsequent kidney damage.
KAIST said on Jan. 5 that it built a device that recreates a human organ environment on a tiny chip to model interactions between muscle and kidney tissues. The research involved teams led by KAIST mechanical engineering professors Jeon Seong-yoon and Shim Gi-dong and Kim Se-jung of Bundang Seoul National University Hospital.
Rhabdomyolysis is a condition in which muscle damage caused by factors such as medication can lead to impaired kidney function and acute renal failure. But there have been limits to directly observing how muscle and kidney influence each other and are simultaneously damaged inside the human body.
To create conditions similar to the human body, the researchers designed a structure that can consolidate three-dimensional muscle tissue with proximal tubule epithelial cells, which perform key functions in the kidney, on a single chip. In particular, the device is a modular microfluidic chip using a plug-and-socket method that allows organ tissues to be attached and detached as needed.
On this organ chip, muscle and kidney tissues are cultured separately in their most suitable environments and then consolidated only at the time of experimentation to induce inter-organ interactions. After the experiment, they can be separated again to independently analyze the changes that occurred in the muscle and kidney tissues, and it is designed to quantify the impact of toxic substances from damaged muscle on the kidney.
Using the platform, the researchers applied atorvastatin (a hyperlipidemia treatment) and fenofibrate (a triglyceride treatment), which are known in clinical settings to cause muscle injury. As a result, the muscle tissue on the chip showed typical changes of rhabdomyolysis, including reduced contractile strength, structural damage, and increased levels of markers indicating muscle injury.
Jeon Seong-yoon said, "With an assembly-type organ chip that can consolidate and separate muscle and kidney at the same time, we precisely replicated in the lab for the first time the inter-organ cascade in which drug-induced muscle injury leads to kidney damage," adding, "This could lay the groundwork for predicting adverse drug reactions in advance and expanding to personalized drug safety assessments."
The research findings were published in the international journal Advanced Functional Materials in Nov. last year.
References
Advanced Functional Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202513519