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Engineered Lego®-like microphysiological models of the human airway clearance phenomena
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  • Lucia Pedersoli,
  • Shuaizhong Zhang,
  • Francesco Briatico-Vangosa,
  • Paola Petrini,
  • Ruth Cardinaels,
  • Jaap den Toonder,
  • Daniela Pacheco
Lucia Pedersoli
Politecnico di Milano Dipartimento di Chimica Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica Giulio Natta

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Shuaizhong Zhang
Eindhoven Unversity of Technology
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Francesco Briatico-Vangosa
Politecnico di Milano Dipartimento di Chimica Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica Giulio Natta
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Paola Petrini
Politecnico di Milano
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Ruth Cardinaels
Eindhoven Unversity of Technology
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Jaap den Toonder
Eindhoven Unversity of Technology
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Daniela Pacheco
Politecnico di Milano
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Abstract

Mucociliary clearance is a crucial event that supports the elimination of inhaled particles, bacteria, pollution and hazardous agents from the human airways, and it also limits the diffusion of aerosolized drugs into the airway epithelium. In spite of its relevance, few in vitro models sufficiently address the cumulative effect of the steric and interactive barrier function of mucus on the one hand, and the dynamic mucus transport imposed by ciliary mucus propulsion on the other hand. Here, ad hoc mucus models of physiological and pathological mucus are combined with magnetic artificial cilia to model mucociliary transport in both physiological and pathological states. The Lego®-like concept adopted, in this study, enables the development of mucociliary clearance models with high versatility, since these can be easily modified to reproduce phenomena characteristic of healthy and diseased human airways, while allowing to determine the effect of each parameter and/or structure separately on the overall mucociliary transport. These Lego®-like airway models can be available off-the-shelf because they are exclusively made of readily available materials, thus ensuring reproducibility across different laboratories.
24 Feb 2021Submitted to Biotechnology and Bioengineering
25 Feb 2021Submission Checks Completed
25 Feb 2021Assigned to Editor
28 Feb 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
28 Mar 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Major
28 Mar 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
24 May 20211st Revision Received
26 May 2021Submission Checks Completed
26 May 2021Assigned to Editor
03 Jun 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
03 Jun 2021Editorial Decision: Accept