Adhesive-Based Fabrication Technique for Culture of Lung Airway Epithelial Cells with Applications in Cell Patterning and Microfluidics.

This work describes a versatile and cost-effective cell culture method for micropatterning and growing adherent cells on porous membranes using pressure-sensitive double-sided adhesives. This technique also allows cell culture using conventional methods and their easy integration into microfluidic chip devices. Adhesives can be used to form different patterns of cultured cells, which can be used for cell proliferation and wound-healing models.

A Robust Protocol for Decellularized Human Lung Bioink Generation Amenable to 2D and 3D Lung Cell Culture.

Decellularization efforts must balance the preservation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) components while eliminating the nucleic acid and cellular components. Following effective removal of nucleic acid and cell components, decellularized ECM (dECM) can be solubilized in an acidic environment with the assistance of various enzymes to develop biological scaffolds in different forms, such as sheets, tubular constructs, or three-dimensional (3D) hydrogels. Each organ or tissue that undergoes decellularization requires a distinct and optimized protocol to ensure that nucleic acids are removed, and the ECM components are preserved.

Development and validation of an open-source, disposable, 3D-printed environmental exposure system for Transwell culture inserts.

Accessible models recapitulating the human airway that are amenable to study whole cannabis smoke exposure are needed for immunological and toxicological studies that inform public health policy and recreational cannabis use. In the present study, we developed and validated a novel three-dimensional (3D)-printed exposure system (IVES) that can be directly applied to study the effect of cannabis smoke exposure on primary human bronchial epithelial cells. Using commercially available design software and a 3D printer, we designed a four-chamber Transwell insert holder for exposures to whole smoke.

PHAIR: a biosensor for pH measurement in air-liquid interface cell culture.

In many biological systems, pH can be used as a parameter to understand and study cell dynamics. However, measuring pH in live cell culture is limited by the sensor ion specificity, proximity to the cell surface, and scalability. Commercially available pH sensors are difficult to integrate into a small-scale cell culture system due to their size and are not cost-effective for disposable use.

Surface Modification of PDMS-Based Microfluidic Devices with Collagen Using Polydopamine as a Spacer to Enhance Primary Human Bronchial Epithelial Cell Adhesion.

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a silicone-based synthetic material used in various biomedical applications due to its properties, including transparency, flexibility, permeability to gases, and ease of use. Though PDMS facilitates and assists the fabrication of complicated geometries at micro- and nano-scales, it does not optimally interact with cells for adherence and proliferation. Various strategies have been proposed to render PDMS to enhance cell attachment.