Precision Cut Lung Slices: Emerging Tools for Preclinical and Translational Lung Research. An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

The urgent need for effective treatments for acute and chronic lung diseases underscores the significance of developing innovative preclinical human research tools. The 2023 ATS Workshop on Precision Cut Lung Slices (PCLS) brought together 35 experts to discuss and address the role of human tissue-derived PCLS as a unique tool for target and drug discovery and validation in pulmonary medicine. With increasing interest and usage, along with advancements in methods and technology, there is a growing need for consensus on PCLS methodology and readouts.

New approach methodologies (NAMs) for the assessment of cleaning products for respiratory irritation: workshop report.

The use of new approach methodologies (NAMs) to assess respiratory irritation depends on several factors, including the specifics of exposure methods and cell/tissue-based test systems. This topic was examined in the context of human health risk assessment for cleaning products at a 1-day public workshop held on 2 March 2023, organized by the American Cleaning Institute (ACI). The goals of this workshop were to (1) review NAMs for evaluation of respiratory irritation, (2) examine different perspectives on current challenges and suggested solutions, and (3) publish a manuscript of the proceedings.

The Fibrotic Phenotype of Human Precision-Cut Lung Slices Is Maintained after Cryopreservation.

Human precision-cut lung slices (hPCLS) prepared from fibrotic lungs recapitulate the pathophysiological hallmarks of fibrosis. These hallmark features can also be induced by treating non-fibrotic hPCLS with a fibrotic cocktail (FC). As a result, the fibrotic and fibrosis-induced hPCLS are rapidly emerging as preferred models for disease modeling and drug discovery.

Multiscale stiffness of human emphysematous precision cut lung slices.

Emphysema is a debilitating disease that remodels the lung leading to reduced tissue stiffness. Thus, understanding emphysema progression requires assessing lung stiffness at both the tissue and alveolar scales. Here, we introduce an approach to determine multiscale tissue stiffness and apply it to precision-cut lung slices (PCLS).