Harvard University’s Wyss Institute researchers have developed a microfluidic lung chip that can mimic radiation-induced lung injury. The lungs’ sensitivity to radiation limits the effectiveness of radiotherapy for cancer treatment. By accurately modeling radiation-induced lung injury, new prevention and treatment methods can be developed, which was challenging without advanced organ-on-a-chip models. The lung chip contains human lung alveolar epithelial cells and lung capillary cells, allowing researchers to recreate the alveolar-capillary interface. By exposing the chip to radiation, the effects on these cellular populations can be monitored and new treatments can be explored.
Radiation-induced lung injury involves sustained inflammation and fibrosis, significantly impacting lung function. This is a concern for nuclear accident survivors and patients undergoing radiotherapy, where dose limitation is necessary to avoid lung damage. Understanding the lungs’ sensitivity to radiation and trialing new treatments offer hope for these patients.
This phenomenon has been difficult to study, as it is complex and can vary between patients based on risk factors. Traditional animal models do not accurately represent the condition and raise ethical concerns. In response, the researchers developed an advanced in vitro system to mimic some aspects of radiation-induced lung damage.
The microfluidic culture system chip integrates human lung alveolar epithelial cells and lung capillary endothelial cells, allowing exposure to air and nutrient medium, respectively. The chip can be exposed to clinically relevant doses of radiation, and the cellular responses can be measured.
The team quantified the appearance of so-called “DNA damage foci” created by the repair protein p53. Each visualized spackle represents one such foci, and the number of spackles in both, epithelial (top row) and endothelial cells (bottom row) increases with the radiation dose they applied to the alveolar-capillary interface on the chips. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University
“Forming a better understanding of how radiation injury occurs and finding new strategies to treat and prevent it poses a multifaceted challenge that in the face of nuclear threats and the realities of current cancer therapies needs entirely new solutions,” said Donald Ingber, Wyss Institute Director. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications: “A human lung alveolus-on-a-chip model of acute radiation-induced lung injury.”
Via: Wyss Institute
