The development of novel therapies for chronic respiratory diseases has been limited by the lack of appropriate preclinical models. Now, Benam et al. have engineered a human lung-derived 'small airway-on-a-chip' that contains a differentiated, mucociliary bronchiolar epithelium composed of cells isolated from healthy subjects or individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), underlined by a functional microvascular endothelium. The chips accurately recapitulated the features of asthma, lung inflammation and COPD exacerbations, and chip responses to therapies were consistent with previous clinical findings.
References
Benam, K. H. et al. Small airway-on-a-chip enables analysis of human lung inflammation and drug responses in vitro. Nat. Methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3697 (2015)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Crunkhorn, S. Lung airway-on-a-chip. Nat Rev Drug Discov 15, 86 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.7