Imaging-Guided Bioreactor for Generating Bioengineered Airway Tissue

Summary

The protocol describes an imaging-enabled bioreactor that allows the selective removal of the endogenous epithelium from the rat trachea and homogenous distribution of exogenous cells on the lumen surface, followed by long-term in vitro culture of the cell-tissue construct.

Abstract

Repeated injury to airway tissue can impair lung function and cause chronic lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Advances in regenerative medicine and bioreactor technologies offer opportunities to produce lab-grown functional tissue and organ constructs that can be used to screen drugs, model disease, and engineer tissue replacements. Here, a miniaturized bioreactor coupled with an imaging modality that allows in situ visualization of the inner lumen of explanted rat trachea during in vitro tissue manipulation and culture is described. Using this bioreactor, the protocol demonstrates imaging-guided selective removal of endogenous cellular components while preserving the intrinsic biochemical features and ultrastructure of the airway tissue matrix. Furthermore, the delivery, uniform distribution, and subsequent prolonged culture of exogenous cells on the decellularized airway lumen with optical monitoring in situ are shown. The results highlight that the imaging-guided bioreactor can potentially be used to facilitate the generation of functional in vitro airway tissues.

Introduction

The luminal surface of the respiratory tract is lined by a layer of epithelium that mainly consists of multi-ciliated, club, goblet, and basal stem cells^1,2. The epithelial layer serves as a primary defense mechanism of the lung, acting as a biophysical barrier that protects the underlying airway tissue against inhaled pathogens, particulates, or chemical gases. It protects the airway tissue via multiple mechanisms, including intercellular tight junction formation, mucociliary clearance, and antimicrobial and antioxidant secretion^3,4. The defe....

Protocol

The animal tissue protocol below has been approved by the animal welfare guideline and regulations of the Institute for Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at Stevens Institute of Technology, and it complies with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines for the use of experimental animals.

1. Design and construction of imaging-guided rat trachea bioreactor

1. Designing and fabrication of rat trachea bioreactor
   1. Create a computer-aided design (CAD) model of the bioreactor chamber with relevant design, such as inlets, outlets, and tissue culture chamber, using CAD generator software. For this s....

Results

The GRIN lens-based in situ imaging modality can allow visualization of the tracheal inner lumen in situ (Figure 5A). Using this imaging method, both bright-field and fluorescent images of the native and de-epithelialized tracheas can be obtained (Figure 5B,C). No fluorescent signal was observed from the native trachea prior to CFSE labeling (Figure 5Bii). However, when the tracheal epithelium was .......

Discussion

In this work, we created an imaging-guided bioreactor that can allow (i) monitoring of the trachea lumen in situ after the cell removal and exogenous cell delivery and (ii) long-term in vitro culture of the cell-seeded trachea tissue. Using this custom-built bioreactor, we demonstrated (i) selective removal of the endogenous epithelial cells from the trachea lumen using detergent and vibration-assisted airway wash and (ii) uniform distribution of exogenous cells onto the luminal surface of the denuded t.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1× PBS	Gibco, Thermo Fisher Scientific	10-010-031
3-port connector	World Precision Instruments	14048-20
4-port connector	World Precision Instruments	14047-10
Accelerometer	STMicroelectronics	IIS3DWBTR
Achromatic doublet	Thorlabs	AC254-150-A-ML
Aluminum pin stub	TED PELLA	16111
Antibiotic-antimycotic	Thermo Fisher Scientific	15240062
Assembly rod	Thorlabs	ER1
Button head screws	McMaster-Carr	91255A274
Cage cube	Thorlabs	C4W
Carbon double-sided conductive tape	TED PELLA	16073
CFSE labelling kit	Abcam	ab113853
Citrisolv (clearing agent)	Decon	1061
C-mount adapter	Thorlabs	SM1A9
Collagen I	Advanced BioMatrix	5153
Conductive liquid silver paint	TED PELLA	16034
Dichroic mirror	Semrock	DI03-R488	Reflected laser wavelengths:  473.0 +- 2 nm 488.0 +3/-2 nm
Dulbecco's modified Eagle’s medium	Gibco, Thermo Fisher Scientific	11965118
Female luer bulkhead to hose barb adapter	Cole-Parmer	EW-45501-30
Female luer to tubing barb	Cole-Parmer	EW-45508-03
Female to male luer connector	Cole-Parmer	ZY-45508-80
Fetal bovine serum	Gibco, Thermo Fisher Scientific	10082147
Filter lens	Chroma Technology Corp	ET535/50m
Fluorescent microscope	Nikon	Eclipse E1000 - D
Fusion 360	Autodesk
Hex nut	McMaster-Carr	91813A160
Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS)	Fisher Scientifc	AC120585000
Imaging fiber	SELFOC, NSG group	GRIN lens
Laser	Opto Engine	MDL-D-488-150mW
Lens tubes	Thorlabs	SM1L40
LIVE/DEAD Viability/Cytotoxicity Kit (Invitrogen)	Thermo Fisher Scientific	L3224
MACH 3 CNC Control Software	Newfangled Solutions
Objective lens	Olympus	UCPLFLN20X
Peristaltic Pump	Cole Parmer	L/S standard digital pump system
Recombinant human FGF-basic	PeproTech	100-18B
Retaining ring	Thorlabs	SM1RR
Scientific CMOS camera	PCO Panda	PCO Panda 4.2
Sodium dodecyl sulfate	VWR	97064-472
Solidworks (2019)	Dassault Systèmes
Stackable lens tube	Thorlabs	SM1L10
Subwoofer plate amplifier	Dayton Audio	SPA250DSP
Subwoofer speaker	Dayton Audio	RSS21OHO-4	Diaphragm diameter: 21 cm
Syringe Pump	World Precision Instruments	AL-4000
Threaded cage plate	Thorlabs	CP33
Threaded luer adapter	Cole-Parmer	EW-45513-81
Tube lens	Thorlabs	AC254-150-A-ML
Tygon Tubing	Cole-Parmer	13-200-110
XY Translator	Thorlabs	CXY1