3D printed lungs from USask enable advanced disease research

According to Canadian Light Source, a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan (USask), researchers from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) and the College of Engineering are working to build a better model for use when studying lung diseases like tuberculosis and cystic fibrosis – compared to typical two-dimensional models that don’t accurately reflect the shape of human lungs.

“We’ve realized that we’re lacking a realistic model for lung diseases… and that means that we can’t really plan a better strategy for lung therapies,” said VIDO’s Dr. Nuraina Dahlan, one of the scientists working to make a three-dimensional lung tissue model. A 3D model, she says, would provide a more accurate environment for studying new medicines and pathogens in the lab. Nuraina is studying under Drs. Neeraj Dhar and Arinjay Banerjee (both at VIDO), and Dr. Daniel Chen (College of Engineering).

Lungs contain scaffolding – called an extracellular matrix – inside which lung cells live. Dahlan and her team used the Canadian Light Source at USask to look at their 3D printed models, so they could understand the tissue’s shape and function without damaging the samples.

They found that their model – 3D printed using special bioinks containing actual living cells – does, in fact, provide an environment in which human lung cells can survive; this suggests that the model could be a suitable environment for growing new cells. In the collaborative project, VIDO researchers grew the living cells that were incorporated into the lung models, while researchers in the College of Engineering used 3D printing to fabricate the models. The next step in this research will be 3D printing another lung, then seeing how it responds to infectious diseases.

Dahlan says having a model that perfectly mimics actual human lungs would be a game-changer for lung treatment. Scientists could gain a better understanding of how lung diseases work, develop patient-specific treatments, and eventually grow whole lungs in the laboratory.

“That will allow us to not only study diseases, but also to use lab-grown lungs as a replacement for transplantation. Either way, having a more accurate lung model allows us to make personalized treatment strategies: we can test whether a particular drug is suitable for a specific patient. Ultimately, this model gives us better options for lung disease prevention and treatment,” said Dahlan.

The research can be found here.