Artificial lungs the size of a rubber band

• May 4, 2024

Two studies published this year advance in the creation of respiratory organs for transplants and scientific research. These are still experimental methods that will take decades to become a reality, but if they prove to be viable, they will be able to put an end to the enormous shortage of lungs for transplants around the world. The idea is to provide a new generation of artificial organs in which to test the toxicity of any type of chemical compounds, without the need to use laboratory animals.

Reconstruction of lungs

One of the investigations, published in the June issue of the scientific journal Science and made by scientists from Yale University (United States), managed to reconstruct a rat lung that had previously been emptied. The technique consists in taking the organ and using special detergents until all the cells that compose it are removed. The result is a whitish connective tissue scaffold that has the shape of a lung, but is no longer so, since it is already empty of veins, alveoli, DNA and any other trace of the donor rat. That kind of skeleton is previously installed inside a tank with newborn rat cells. Air is also injected to recover the characteristic elasticity that makes breathing possible. In eight days the organ is removed from the tank and transplanted into recipient rats. Although the artificial lung worked correctly for two hours, the team of researchers is already preparing other longer-term experiments.

A chip like lung

The second study, also published in Science and realized in the University of Harvard (the United States), pretends to create artificial organs with which to prove the toxicity of materials used in paintings, insulators and other products. It is a minipulmon built on a transparent platform and the size of an eraser. This chip carries in its interior a sheet of tissue with human epithelial and endothelial cells, similar to those that exist inside the alveoli. The tissue layer is elastic to adapt to the respiratory rhythm and allows oxygen and other particles to enter the blood vessels. He is not yet able to perform the entire breathing process, but he can simulate the entry of air into the lungs. The chip could become the new laboratory rat, because of the cost of the small device in comparison with the expensive toxicological or pharmacological tests with animals, the creators say.

Video Medicine: How To Make Simple Lung Model with Balloon (May 2024).