Artificial airways for the study of respiratory disease

Abstract

This review will focus on human cell-based experimental models to study respiratory diseases, in particular models of the large airways relevant to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Such models have the advantage of incorporating cells that can be derived from disease-relevant tissue and so have retained important genetic and epigenetic features that contribute to the human disease. These models can be used for mechanistic studies, target identification and validation and toxicological testing. While many models have been developed to varying degrees of sophistication, the challenge remains to develop an integrated system that recapitulates the complex cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions that occur in vivo and to provide these with a ‘circulation’ to study the dynamics of immune and inflammatory cell influx and efflux.

Keywords::

• air interface
• asthma
• circulation
• epithelium
• microfluidics
• organotypic cultures

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors acknowledge support from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research and the Medical Research Council. DE Davies is cofounder and consultant to Synairgen, a spin-out company from the University of Southampton. EJ Swindle is supported by the Wellcome Trust Value in People Award and the University of Southampton. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.