Embedding of Precision-Cut Lung Slices in Engineered Hydrogel Biomaterials Supports Extended ex vivo Culture.

Embedding of Precision-Cut Lung Slices in Engineered Hydrogel Biomaterials Supports Extended ex vivo Culture. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2019 Sep 12;: Authors: Bailey KE, Pino C, Lennon ML, Lyons A, Jacot JG, Lammers SR, Königshoff M, Magin CM Abstract Maintaining the three-dimensional (3D) architecture and cellular complexity of lung tissue ex vivo can enable elucidation of the cellular and molecular pathways underlying chronic pulmonary diseases. Precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) are one human-lung model with the potential to support critical mechanistic studies and early drug discovery. However, many studies report a short culture period of seven to ten days. Here, we systematically evaluated poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogel platforms for the encapsulation of PCLS. We demonstrated the ability to support ex vivo culture of embedded PCLS over 21 days compared to control PCLS floating in media. Our customized hydrogels maintained PCLS architecture (no change in porosity), viability (4.7-fold increase, p<0.0001), and cellular phenotype as measured by surfactant protein C (1.8-fold increase, p<0.0001) and vimentin expression (no change) compared to non-encapsulated controls. Collectively, these results demonstrate that hydrogel biomaterials support the extended culture times required to study chronic pulmonary diseases ex vivo using PCLS technology. PMID: 31513744 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Am J Respir Cell Mol... - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol Source Type: research