bims-orenst 2022-01-09 papers

Issue of 2022–01–09
two papers selected by
Joram Mooiweer, University of Groningen

Biomed Microdevices. 2022 Jan 04. 24(1): 8

3D printed transwell-integrated nose-on-chip model to evaluate effects of air flow-induced mechanical stresses on mucous secretion.

Zachary Brooks, Kanghyun Kim, Kai Zhao, Tarun Goswami, Saber Hussain, Angela R Dixon.

While there are many chip models that simulate the air-tissue interface of the respiratory system, only a few represent the upper respiratory system. These chips are restricted to unidirectional flow patterns that are not comparable to the highly dynamic and variable flow patterns found in the native nasal cavity. Here we describe the development of a tunable nose-on-chip device that mimics the air-mucosa interface and is coupled to an air delivery system that simulates natural breathing patterns through the generation of bi-directional air flow. Additionally, we employ computational modeling to demonstrate how the device design can be tuned to replicate desired mechanical characteristics within specific regions of the human nasal cavity. We also demonstrate how to culture human nasal epithelial cell line RPMI 2650 within the lab-on-chip (LOC) device. Lastly, Alcian Blue histological staining was performed to label mucin proteins, which play important roles in mucous secretion. Our results revealed that dynamic flow conditions can increase mucous secretion for RPMI 2650 cells, when compared to no flow, or stationary, conditions.

Keywords: Airflow; Chip model; Computational modeling; Mucous production; Nasal mucosa; RPMI 2650 nasal epithelial cell line; Shear stress

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-021-00602-y

Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2022 Jan 05.

Three-Dimension Co-culture of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Differentiated Osteoblasts on Gallic Acid Grafted-Chitosan Scaffold as a Model of Hematopoietic Stem Cells Niche.

Jin Wang, Minghao Xiong, Qihao Sun, Wen-Song Tan, Haibo Cai.

The existing approaches of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) expansion in vitro were difficult to meet the needs of clinical application. While in vivo, HSCs efficiently self-renew in niche where they interact with three dimension extracellular matrix and stromal cells. Osteoblasts (OBs) are one of most significant stromal cells of HSCs niche. Here, we proposed a three-dimensional environment based on gallic acid grafted-chitosan (2c) scaffold and OBs differentiated from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) to recapitulate the main components of HSCs niche. The results of alkaline phosphatase staining and alizarin red staining demonstrated that HUMSCs were successfully induced into OBs. The results showed that the expansions of CD34+cells, CD34+CD38- cells and CD34+CD38-CD45RA-CD49f+CD90+ cells (primitive hematopoietic stem cells, pHSCs) harvested from the biomimetic HSCs niche based on 2c scaffold and OBs (IV) group were larger than those harvested from other three culture groups. Importantly, it was found that the CD34+ cells harvested from IV group had better secondary expansion capability and colony forming potential, indicating better self-renewal ability. In addition, the biomimetic HSCs niche based on 2c scaffold and OBs protected HSCs apoptosis and promoted HSCs division. Taken together, the biomimetic HSCs niche based on 2c scaffold and OBs was an effective strategy for ex vivo expansion of HSCs in clinical scale.

Keywords: Hematopoietic stem cells; Osteoblasts; Scaffolds; Three dimensional Ex vivo expansion

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-021-10325-5