Co-cultured microfluidic model of the airway optimized for microscopy and micro-optical coherence tomography imaging.

We have developed a human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cell and endothelial cell co-cultured microfluidic model to mimic the human airway. This airway-on-a-chip was designed with a central epithelial channel and two flanking endothelial channels, with a three-dimensional monolayers of cells growing along the four walls of the channel, forming central clear lumens. These cultures mimic airways and microvasculature .