TY - JOUR
KW - airway-on-chip
KW - air–liquid interface (ALI)
KW - engineered extracellular matrix hydrogel
KW - melt electrowriting (MEW)
KW - tubular geometry
AU - Ali Doryab
AU - Jack F. Murphy
AU - Michael Bartolf-Kopp
AU - Jenny C-C Hsin
AU - Alice Chernaik
AU - Frank McCaughan
AU - Yan Yan Shery Huang
AU - Tomasz Jungst
AU - Jürgen Groll
AB - Chronic lung diseases are a leading cause of mortality worldwide, yet therapeutic options remain limited. A major barrier to pulmonary drug development is the lack of preclinical models that recapitulate lung complexity. While recent airway-on-chip models have advanced by integrating vascular and extracellular matrix (ECM) components, these are largely limited to planar configurations. Only a few tubular designs exist, yet they generally lack a perfusable vascular compartment that supports dynamic endothelial-epithelial interactions. To address this gap, we introduce an airway-on-tube that integrates an engineered ECM (EnECM) hydrogel, tuned to match lung tissue stiffness, with a tubular melt electrowritten (MEW) scaffold. The MEW reinforces the EnECM hydrogel for dynamic culture without affecting cell behavior. The tubular EnECM/MEW construct incorporates patient-derived primary human lung microvascular endothelial cells embedded within the EnECM hydrogel, forming a perfusable endothelial lumen, while primary human bronchial epithelial cells are cultured on the outer (abluminal) surface, establishing an outward-facing epithelium at the air-liquid interface (ALI). Pulsatile perfusion through the endothelial lumen delivers nutrients and mechanical cues (shear stress and cyclic stretch) while maintaining ALI culture. Together, this study establishes a versatile hydrogel-based platform for next-generation airway-on-chip models, opening new opportunities for preclinical lung research and precision therapeutic development.
BT - Advanced Materials
DO - 10.1002/adma.202523588
IS - n/a
LA - en
N2 - Chronic lung diseases are a leading cause of mortality worldwide, yet therapeutic options remain limited. A major barrier to pulmonary drug development is the lack of preclinical models that recapitulate lung complexity. While recent airway-on-chip models have advanced by integrating vascular and extracellular matrix (ECM) components, these are largely limited to planar configurations. Only a few tubular designs exist, yet they generally lack a perfusable vascular compartment that supports dynamic endothelial-epithelial interactions. To address this gap, we introduce an airway-on-tube that integrates an engineered ECM (EnECM) hydrogel, tuned to match lung tissue stiffness, with a tubular melt electrowritten (MEW) scaffold. The MEW reinforces the EnECM hydrogel for dynamic culture without affecting cell behavior. The tubular EnECM/MEW construct incorporates patient-derived primary human lung microvascular endothelial cells embedded within the EnECM hydrogel, forming a perfusable endothelial lumen, while primary human bronchial epithelial cells are cultured on the outer (abluminal) surface, establishing an outward-facing epithelium at the air-liquid interface (ALI). Pulsatile perfusion through the endothelial lumen delivers nutrients and mechanical cues (shear stress and cyclic stretch) while maintaining ALI culture. Together, this study establishes a versatile hydrogel-based platform for next-generation airway-on-chip models, opening new opportunities for preclinical lung research and precision therapeutic development.
EP - e23588
T2 - Advanced Materials
TI - Hydrogel-Based Airway-on-Tube With Perfusable Endothelial Lumen and Outward Epithelialization
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.202523588
VL - n/a
Y2 - 2026-03-16
SN - 1521-4095
ER -