The POSTECH research team succeeded in developing the world’s first’artificial lung’ model that breathes through 3D printing.
According to POSTECH on the 23rd, a research team composed of Professor Seong-Jun Jeong of the Department of Materials Science and Ju-Yeon Yoo of the Department of Life Science and Da-yoon Kang in the integrated process recently produced a three-dimensional lung model containing a variety of human alveolar cell lines using inkjet bioprinting.
Oxygen that enters the human body arrives at the alveoli through the airways, and is replaced with carbon dioxide carried by blood through the capillaries of the alveoli.
The alveolar membrane through which oxygen and carbon dioxide move is a three-layered structure consisting of an epithelial layer, a basement membrane, and an endothelial capillary layer, and has a very thin thickness to facilitate the movement of gas.
Until now, there has been a limitation in accurately replicating alveoli with such a thin and complex structure.
However, the research team used the world’s first’drop on demand’ high-precision inkjet printing to laminate alveolar cells in high resolution, reproducing a three-layer alveolar barrier model with a thickness of about 10 micrometers (μm). will be.
The model thus produced showed a high degree of simulation when compared to a two-dimensional cell culture model as well as a three-dimensional unstructured model cultured by mixing alveolar cells and hydrogel.
In addition, the research team found that the produced alveolar barrier model similarly reproduced the physiological response at the actual tissue level in terms of viral infectivity and antiviral response.
When this model was used as an influenza virus infection model, it was observed that virus self-proliferation and antiviral response appeared.
Professor Jeong explained, “It is possible to create a disease model tailored to patients, as well as mass production and quality control, so it can be used as an initial platform for evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic drugs and vaccines that can respond to infectious respiratory viruses including corona 19 virus infection.
The study was published in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Science.
Reporter Kim Woong-hee [email protected]
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