Model for radiation-induced lung injury
October 2023
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, USA
Acute exposure to high-dose gamma radiation due to cancer radiotherapy can result in radiation-induced lung injury (RILI). In this study, a human lung-on-a-chip model is used to investigate acute RILI in vitro. Therefore, a 2-channel chip obtained by Emulate Inc. was used to cultivate human lung alveolar epithelial cells under an air-liquid interface (ALI) and a human lung microvascular endothelium was included. Cyclic mechanical strain was applied to mimic the breathing motions and in some of the experiments human immune cells (human peripheral blood mononuclear cells) were introduced in the vascular channel.
Both, lung epithelium and endothelium exhibit DNA damage, cellular hypertrophy, upregulation of inflammatory cytokines, and loss of barrier function within 6 h of radiation exposure. The radiation dose sensitivity observed on the chip is more like the human lung than that observed in preclinical in vivo models. Moreover, the ability of two drugs to suppress the effects of acute RILI was investigated.
The Lung Alveolus Chip provides a human relevant model for studying the molecular basis of acute RILI and can be useful for evaluation of radiation countermeasure therapeutics.
A human lung alveolus-on-a-chip model of acute radiation-induced lung injury
Donald E. Ingber
Added on: 12-02-2023
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42171-z
