1 through the fluid microchannel and monitored fluid leak across the endothelium and into the alveolar air space.IL-2 induced a fluid leak that continued for four days and decreased air volume compared with no treatment. The administration of both IL-2 and human blood plasma proteins caused fluid leak and fibrin clot formation that occur during the disease.The application of mechanical strains to mimic breathing further compromised the barrier between the endothelium and alveolar epithelium and enhanced the leakage caused by IL-2. In contrast, mechanical strain in the absence of IL-2 did not alter barrier integrity.These findings suggest breathing may exacerbate pulmonary edema and that artificial ventilation may be counterproductive in patients with pulmonary edema.Finally, the Wyss group used the model to test potential therapeutics. Application of GSK2193874 or angiopoietin 1 (ANG1; ANGPT1), an antagonist of the edema-inducing ANG2 (ANGPT2), inhibited IL-2-induced pulmonary edema.Silence Therapeutics plc has Atu111, a small interfering RNA therapeutic targeting ANG2, in preclinical testing to treat acute lung injury.The data were published in Science Translational Medicine. The authors included researchers from GSK and Seoul National University.
Breathing easyThe Boston team hopes to use the organ-on-a-chip technology to decrease the number of or replace many types of preclinical studies."Our next step is to explore what additional data might be required to convince pharmaceutical companies and the FDA that data produced by an on-chip model of human pulmonary edema could be used in place of results from an animal model of this condition to advance a drug toward testing in humans, " Ingber told SciBX.He said that unlike other in vitro models, the lung on a chip allows the study of organ-level functions. As for in vivo models, he said, "the chips should be faster and cheaper than animals. "Wolfgang Kübler, associate professor of surgery and physiology at the University of Toronto, was less bullish on the potential for taking animal studies out of the equation. "The model does not replicate animal experiments and the ability to study an entire organ or body," he said. "The litmus test still has to be in vivo, but this is certainly a good screening tool that may give a better indication of therapeutic success than simple cell cultures. " Ingber said the model should be extendable to other lung conditions. For example, he said, the device could monitor the effects of aerosol-based toxins or aerosolized nanoparticles, aerosol-based drug delivery, smoke or chemical inhalation injury, radiation injury, fibrosis, pneumonias and metastasis.
Pulmonary edema on a chip
By Lauren Martz, Staff WriterResearchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have described the first disease model to emerge from the institute's organ-on-a-chip microfluidic device technology. 1,2 The model of pulmonary edema could be better than culture models at predicting whether therapeutics will translate...