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Bronchial mucosa produced by tissue engineering: a new tool to study cellular interactions in asthma
1Centre de recherche, Hôpital Laval, Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie, Québec, Canada.
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
|January 10, 2001
Summary
Tissue engineering created a human bronchial mucosa model to study asthma. This model revealed disorganized tissue and increased IL-5 in asthmatic subjects, aiding asthma research.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Respiratory Medicine
- Immunology
Background:
- Fiberoptic bronchial biopsies offer limited mechanistic insights into asthma's immunopathology and airway remodeling.
- Tissue engineering enables the generation of ample tissue for studying cell interactions in near-natural conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the viability of an engineered human bronchial mucosa as a model for investigating cellular interactions in asthma.
Main Methods:
- Human bronchial fibroblasts from normal and asthmatic donors were embedded in collagen gel.
- Bronchial epithelial cells were cultured on the gel at an air-liquid interface, with or without T lymphocytes.
- Engineered tissues underwent structural and ultrastructural analysis; T lymphocytes were analyzed for IL-5 localization.
Main Results:
- Engineered mucosa from normal subjects exhibited pseudostratified ciliated epithelium, comparable to native tissue.
- Asthmatic subject-derived engineered mucosa showed disorganized tissue structure, particularly epithelial cell arrangement.
- A significantly higher percentage of IL-5-expressing T lymphocytes (87%) was found in engineered asthmatic mucosa versus normal mucosa (2%).
Conclusions:
- Tissue engineering successfully produced in vitro bronchial mucosa models from both normal and asthmatic individuals.
- These engineered models represent a valuable tool for understanding asthma's inflammatory and repair mechanisms.