DOI: 10.1002/btm2.10715
Clémentine Richter1,2 | Lorenz Latta1 | Daria Harig1,2 | Patrick Carius1,2 | Janick D. Stucki3,4 | Nina Hobi3,4 | Andreas Hugi3 | Paul Schumacher5 | Tobias Krebs5 | Alexander Gamrekeli6 | Felix Stöckle6 | Klaus Urbschat7 | Galia Montalvo8,9 | Franziska Lautenschläger8,10 | Brigitta Loretz1 | Alberto Hidalgo1 | Nicole Schneider-Daum1 | Claus-Michael Lehr1,2
1Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
2Department of Pharmacy, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
3AlveoliX AG, Swiss Organs-on-Chip Innovation, Bern, Switzerland
4ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, Organs-on-Chip Technologies, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
5Vitrocell® Systems GmbH, Waldkirch, Germany
6Center for Thorax Medicine, Clinic Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, Germany
7Section of Thoracic Surgery of the Saar Lung Center, SHG Clinics, Völklingen, Germany
8Department of Experimental Physics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
9Biophysics, Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine (CIPMM), School of Medicine, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany 10Center for Biophysics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
Abstract
This study describes a complex human in vitro model for evaluating anti-inflammatory drug response in the alveoli that may contribute to the reduction of animal testing in the pre-clinical stage of drug development. The model is based on the human alveolar epithelial cell line Arlo co-cultured with macrophages differentiated from the THP-1 cell line, creating a physiological biological microenvironment. To mimic the threedimensional architecture and dynamic expansion and relaxation of the air-blood-barrier, they are grown on a stretchable microphysiological lung-on-chip. For validating the in vitro model, three different protocols have been developed to demonstrate the clinically established anti-inflammatory effect of glucocorticoids to reduce certain inflammatory markers after different pro-inflammatory stimuli: (1) an Inflammation caused by bacterial LPS (lipopolysaccharides) to simulate an LPS-induced acute lung injury measured best with cytokine IL-6 release; (2) an inflammation caused by LPS at ALI (air-liquid interface) to investigate aerosolized anti-inflammatory treatment, measured with chemokine IL-8 release; and (3) an inflammation with a combination of human inflammatory cytokines TNFα and IFNγ to simulate a critical cytokine storm leading to epithelial barrier disruption, where the eventual weakening or protection of the epithelial barrier can be measured. In all cases, the presence of macrophages appeared to be crucial to mediating inflammatory changes in the alveolar epithelium. LPS induction led to inflammatory changes independently of stretch conditions. Dynamic stretch, emulating breathing-like mechanics, was essential for in vitro modeling of the clinically relevant outcome of epithelial barrier disruption upon TNFα/IFNγ- induced inflammation.
