Co-cultured microfluidic model of the airway optimized for microscopy and micro-optical coherence tomography imaging.

We have developed a human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cell and endothelial cell co-cultured microfluidic model to mimic the in vivo human airway. This airway-on-a-chip was designed with a central epithelial channel and two flanking endothelial channels, with a three-dimensional monolayers of cells growing along the four walls of the channel, forming central clear lumens. These cultures mimic airways and microvasculature in vivo . The central channel cells are grown at air-liquid interface and show features of airway differentiation including tight-junction formation, mucus production, and ciliated cells. Combined with novel micro-optical coherence tomography, this chip enables functional imaging of the interior of the lumen, which includes quantitation of cilia motion including beat frequency and mucociliary transport. This airway-on-a chip is a significant step forward in the development of microfluidics models for functional imaging.
Competing Interests: Dr. Rowe reports grants from Bayer (F), grants from Forest Research Institute (F), grants from AstraZeneca (F), grants from N30/Nivalis (F), grants from Novartis (F), grants from Galapagos/AbbVie (F), grants from Proteostasis (F), grants from Eloxx (F), grants and personal fees from Celtaxsys (F,C), grants from PTC Therapeutics (F), grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (F,C,S), personal fees from Bayer (C), personal fees from Novartis (C), personal fees from Renovion (C), outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest. The microfluidic device will be available commercially from SynVivo Inc.
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