Artificial lung tissue developed for premies
Pre-term babies have several obstacles to overcome, and one of the most challenging is pulmonary hypoplasia. The condition involves underdeveloped lungs and a decreased number of alveoli, the primary sites of gas exchange.
In addition to the low number, the alveoli are also deficient in the surfactant produced by the epithelial cells, leading to a near-blockage to the flow of gas.
Although there have been various state-of-the-art treatments for pulmonary hypoplasia, later in life, infants can still suffer from pulmonary hypertension, hyaline membrane disease and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
It was clear to the laboratory of Fizan Abdullah that the solution to this neonatal condition was in regenerative medicine. As a result, this Biomedical Engineering lab, combined with the Pediatric Surgery and Mechanical Engineering departments, worked to create an artificial alveolar-capillary membrane that could one day put an end to a rare but life-threatening condition.
Before publishing their results in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, the lab created two generations of the membrane.
Both membrane types were created to physiologically-relevant scales. Each microdevice could support several microfluidic cell cultures. These two membrane-like microdevices closely mimic the real tissue found at the the alveolus-capillary interface, but differ in the number of stages used.
"Due the complexity of the system, we decided to take it as a progressive series by adding a new parameter every generation. The first-generation devices were used to test the pulmonary cell types to various fluid shear regimes and also to come up with the range of flow velocities sustainable by the different cell types," Divya Nalayanda, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Medicine, said of their first model.
"We observed that the different cell types could resist fluid shear to different levels, with the endothelial cell types capable of withstanding high fluid shear than alveolar cells."
In addition to the low number, the alveoli are also deficient in the surfactant produced by the epithelial cells, leading to a near-blockage to the flow of gas.
Although there have been various state-of-the-art treatments for pulmonary hypoplasia, later in life, infants can still suffer from pulmonary hypertension, hyaline membrane disease and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
It was clear to the laboratory of Fizan Abdullah that the solution to this neonatal condition was in regenerative medicine. As a result, this Biomedical Engineering lab, combined with the Pediatric Surgery and Mechanical Engineering departments, worked to create an artificial alveolar-capillary membrane that could one day put an end to a rare but life-threatening condition.
Before publishing their results in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, the lab created two generations of the membrane.
Both membrane types were created to physiologically-relevant scales. Each microdevice could support several microfluidic cell cultures. These two membrane-like microdevices closely mimic the real tissue found at the the alveolus-capillary interface, but differ in the number of stages used.
"Due the complexity of the system, we decided to take it as a progressive series by adding a new parameter every generation. The first-generation devices were used to test the pulmonary cell types to various fluid shear regimes and also to come up with the range of flow velocities sustainable by the different cell types," Divya Nalayanda, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Medicine, said of their first model.
"We observed that the different cell types could resist fluid shear to different levels, with the endothelial cell types capable of withstanding high fluid shear than alveolar cells."
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