A miniaturized multicellular platform to mimic the 3D structure of the alveolar-capillary barrier.

Several diseases affect the alveoli, and the efficacy of medical treatments and pharmaceutical therapies is hampered by the lack of pre-clinical models able to recreate the diseases. Microfluidic devices, mimicking the key structural and compositional features of the alveoli, offer several advantages to medium and high-throughput analysis of new candidate therapies. Here, we developed an alveolus-on-a-chip recapitulating the microanatomy of the physiological tissue by including the epithelium, the fibrous interstitial layer and the capillary endothelium.

Roles of Ethylene Production and Ethylene Receptor Expression in Regulating Apple Fruitlet Abscission.

Apple (Malus × domestica) is increasingly being considered an interesting model species for studying early fruit development, during which an extremely relevant phenomenon, fruitlet abscission, may occur as a response to both endogenous and/or exogenous cues. Several studies were carried out shedding light on the main physiological and molecular events leading to the selective release of lateral fruitlets within a corymb, either occurring naturally or as a result of a thinning treatment. Several studies pointed out a clear association between a rise of ethylene biosynthetic levels in the fruitlet and its tendency to abscise.