In the drug development process, the accurate prediction of drug efficacy and toxicity is important in order to reduce the cost, labor, and effort involved. For this purpose, conventional 2D cell culture models are used in the early phase of drug development. However, the differences between the in vitro and the in vivo systems have caused the failure of drugs in the later phase of the drug‐development process. Therefore, there is a need for a novel in vitro model system that can provide accurate information for evaluating the drug efficacy and toxicity through a closer recapitulation of the in vivo system. Recently, the idea of using microtechnology for mimicking the microscale tissue environment has become widespread, leading to the development of “organ‐on‐a‐chip.” Furthermore, the system is further developed for realizing a multiorgan model for mimicking interactions between multiple organs. These advancements are still ongoing and are aimed at ultimately developing “body‐on‐a‐chip” or “human‐on‐a‐chip” devices for predicting the response of the whole body. This review summarizes recently developed organ‐on‐a‐chip technologies, and their applications for reproducing multiorgan functions.

中文翻译：

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芯片上的器官技术可重现多器官的生理学

在药物开发过程中，准确预测药物功效和毒性对于降低成本，劳力和工作量很重要。为此，在药物开发的早期阶段使用常规的2D细胞培养模型。但是，体外和体内系统之间的差异导致了药物开发过程后期药物的失败。因此，需要一种新型的体外模型系统，该系统可以通过体内系统的更紧密概括来提供用于评估药物功效和毒性的准确信息。最近，使用微技术模仿微观组织环境的想法已经普及，从而导致了“芯片上的有机物”的发展。此外，进一步开发了该系统，以实现模仿多个器官之间相互作用的多器官模型。这些进步仍在进行中，旨在最终开发“芯片上的人体”或“芯片上的人体”设备，以预测整个人体的反应。这篇综述总结了最近开发的片上器官技术及其在重现多器官功能中的应用。