On Sept. 26, 2019, UPenn researchers led by Rebecca Wells, MD, announced they had created the first-ever ‘bile duct-on-a-chip’, which replicated the structure and cellular makeup of the bile duct without using human or animal models. A detailed explanation of the bile duct-on-a-chip and the researchers’ findings were published in the journal Hepatology.

Bile ducts are the tubes that transfer bile—a highly toxic fluid—from the liver and gallbladder to the small intestine, where it assists the body with digestion and plays a role in waste excretion. Inside the bile ducts, the lining cells called cholangiocytes are packed very tightly and can typically tolerate the highly toxic nature of bile and other substances flowing through the interior of the ducts. 

Researchers have been studying biliary physiopathology using 2D dishes and organoids in vitro for years. However, those models failed to replicate the ducts’ tubular structure and made it difficult to access the interior side of cholangiocytes.