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, said co-lead author Samir Ghadiali, PhD, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Ohio State.
The initial damage is purely physical, but the processes after that are biological in nature – and what we're doing with this device is coupling the two." Samir Ghadiali, PhD, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Ohio State The team hopes the device will also help in the hunt for therapies to address ventilator-induced lung injury. "This is an important advance in the field that will hopefully allow for a better understanding of how lung injury develops in mechanically ventilated patients and identification of therapeutic targets so that we can give drugs to prevent that kind of injury or treat it when it happens," said co-lead author Joshua Englert, MD, associate professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
The research was published recently in the journal Lab on a Chip . Ventil.