Question(s) - Can we create a chambered device that mimics the small pockets of tissues in the lungs where oxygen diffuses into the blood?
Can we fabricate this device so that it reliably and accurately demonstrates the inhaling and exhaling of lungs?
Will the device have similar integrity, viability, and permeability to typical alveolar-capillary interfaces found in humans?
Methods: A layer of PDMS is sandwiched between two halves of a molded chamber to make three parallel air pathways on the chip. the same type of epithelial and endothelial cells found in the linings of a human lung are cultured onto opposite sides of the PDMS membrane, and air is pumped in and out of the chambers in the same way that air goes into and out of the lungs during breathing.
results - the "inhaling" and "exhaling" air channels are colored blue and red on a fully-functional lung-on-a-chip device, and cells grown on the PDMS layer actively undergo the same mechanical stresses that their real-life counterparts experience in the human body. The entire lung-on-a-chip system measures roughly 1-2cm long, and external pumping mechanisms drive air in and out of the device.