Using a ventilator-on-a-chip developed at The Ohio State University, researchers have found that shear stress from the collapse and reopening of the air sacs is the most harmful type of damage. This miniature organ-on-a-chip model simulates lung injury during mechanical ventilation, said Samir Ghadiali, one of the scientists involved in this study. The ventilator-on-a chip’s measurement of real-time changes to cells was enabled by an innovative approach: growing human lung cells on a synthetic nanofiber membrane mimicking the complex lung matrix. This ventilator-on-a-chip is closer to the authentic ventilated lung microenvironment than any similar lung chip systems to date, the researchers said.
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