Larnyx Tissue Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Shreya Anandan, Jasmine Aviles Mena, Natalie Butterfield, Alina Puig, and Shreya Sharma
Abstract
Idiopathic subglottic stenosis (iSGS) is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by abnormal wound healing around the subglottis and tracheal region. Excessive fibrosis causes ECM deposition in the area, leading to tissue stiffness and narrowing of the passage. There is no permanent solution, and current treatment solutions involve surgically removing the scar tissue with topical medication; however, since fibrotic differentiation has a high recurrence rate, patients have to undergo surgeries regularly. Additionally, since the disease is extremely rare, occurring in 1 in 400,000 people in the United States and primarily affecting menopausal women, testing novel medications becomes hard. Hence, our project involves a trachea-on-chip model with the phenotypic features of iSGS and is to have similar mechanical properties to the trachea. The microfluidic chip will be designed to have three different channels, one containing epithelial cells and one containing fibroblast cells. These cells were obtained from Mayo Clinic from diseased tissue and were seeded at a 10:1 epithelial to fibroblast ratio. Additionally, the third channel would contain cell media and TGF-beta to promote cell growth and fibrosis in the respective cell culture. The ultimate goal is to validate this model by seeing proliferation of fibroblasts and a ratio of 5:1 for the cells. Once validated, we hope researchers will be able to create a solution for patients with iSGS. There are no pre-existing OoCs for the trachea; hence, manufacturing costs are difficult to estimate, however, the costs of other chip models start at $22,000.
