# Depositing Data Generated from Drug Test on microJoint Model into the Microphysiology Systems Database

> **NIH NIH UH3** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2021 · $77,148

## Abstract

ABSTRACTS
This application is being submitted in response to PA-20-272 (NOT-TR-21-028).
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of arthritis. Many drugs fail at various stages of human clinical
trials due to poor treatment outcomes or unexpected toxicity that were not identified during preclinical development,
suggesting deficiencies of available models for developing disease-modifying drugs. In vitro models do not fully
encompass the concept that OA is a “whole joint disease”. Animal models have inherent deficiencies because of
physiological/genomic differences with humans. This predicament has prompted a paradigm shift in OA drug
development. Recently, with the support from the parent grant (UG3/UH3TR002136), our team has engineered an
in vitro microphysiological joint chip(microJoint) that integrates the osteochondral, synovial, and adipose analogs
using human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Through introducing the interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) into the medium
that feeds the synovium tissue only, "inflamed synovial tissue"-induced cartilage degradation has been
successfully modeled in the microJoint. To validate the microJoint as a model to predict the efficacy of novel
therapeutic interventions in OA in humans, it is critical to assess the impact of agents with proven efficacy for
OA in the microJoint. Currently, we have tested Naproxen, Wnt pathway inhibitors SM04690 and sclerostin,
fibroblast growth factor 18, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. We will continue to test other proposed drugs,
including Bone morphogenetic protein 7, calcitonin, Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3, Kartogenin,
cyclopamine, simvastatin, rosiglitazone, and nuclear factor (NF)-κB decoy oligodeoxynucleotide. In addition, we
will use the microJoint to assess the therapeutic value of MSC-derived products, including the MSC-conditioned
medium, and/or MSC-derived exosomes. Therefore, we expect to generate copious amounts of quantitative data.
Currently, we use Microsoft Excel to process all data, which lacks a mechanism to autonomously organize and
analyze the results. In this new project, we thus propose to work with the Microphysiology Systems Database
(MPS-Db) team to store and process our data from the drug tests. Specifically, we will upload the real-time PCR
and Luminex assay data from drug tests into the MPS-Db. Through the built-in tool, we will be able to quickly
analyze the data and determine the best treatment candidate from the drug tests by systemically assessing all
the data as a whole. The proposed work is important to validating the microJoint in modeling osteoarthritis and
the utility of microJoint in predicting drug responses in humans. The publicly accessible data from the study using
the microJoint will also be valuable to researchers working on the traditional OA models, such as in vitro cell
culture and animal models. For example, the biomarkers identified in the microJoint will inform the specific
molecules to focus on the studies conducte...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10434624
- **Project number:** 3UH3TR002136-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Hang Lin
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $77,148
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-08-20 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10434624

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10434624, Depositing Data Generated from Drug Test on microJoint Model into the Microphysiology Systems Database (3UH3TR002136-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10434624. Licensed CC0.

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