Figure 1.

(A) Colorectal liver metastasis models. Bolded applications are particularly well suited for the model. Even in the same category of model, constituent models can vary greatly, based on design, method, and study goals. (B, C) Colorectal cancer (CRC) “organ-on-a-chip” (OOC) platforms can model the immune response to tumors. (B) CRC cells (red) and IFN-DCs (green) are cultured in an OOC device (see cartoon) to simulate immune crosstalk. IFN-DCs migrate towards and phagocytose CRC cells following treatment with interferon-α and romidepsin. Images have been adapted from Parlato et al’s 2017 Scientific Reports article (38). (C) M1 and M2 macrophages (red) cultured with CRC cell lines (not shown) in a vascularized OOC platform (vessels shown in green) display anti- and pro-tumor effects, respectively. Figure was originally published in Bi et al’s 2020 Integrative Biology report (39).