High-Throughput Bronchus-on-a-Chip Model Improves Research on Airway Inflammation

Study in a Sentence: Researchers developed an improved in vitro model of the human airway that mimics the tubular bronchial structure in the human lung.

Healthy for Humans: Airway inflammation, a symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, impacts normal lung function. The lower respiratory tract, including the bronchus of each lung, protects the body against airborne materials that can cause airway inflammation. This novel bronchus-on-a-chip model is able to mimic the structure of the human airway to match how substances are inhaled, leading to better predictions of human outcomes.

Redefining Research: When studying the bronchus, animal experiments and previous human-based in vitro models have failed to replicate the tubular structure of the human airway. The bronchus-on-a-chip system improves on those models by integrating multiple bronchus cell types in 3D with airway channels and high-throughput capabilities, allowing reliable, rapid testing of the effects of airway exposure to airborne materials.