A new ventilator-on-a-chip model to study lung damage

For the first time, scientists are able to directly compare the different kinds of injury that mechanical ventilation causes to cells in the lungs. In a new study, using a ventilator-on-a-chip model developed at The Ohio State University, researchers found that shear stress from the collapse and reopening of the air sacs is the most injurious type of damage.

This miniature “organ-on-a-chip” model simulates not only lung injury during mechanical ventilation, but also repair and recovery, in human-derived cells in real time, says co-lead authors Samir Ghadiali, PhD, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Ohio State, and Joshua Englert, MD, associate professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The team hopes the device will also help in the hunt for therapies to address ventilator-induced lung injury. The research was published recently in the journal Lab on a Chip. Read more.