Human Lung Chip leveraged to faithfully model radiation-induced l

Nature Communications, A human lung alveolus-on-a-chip model of acute radiation-induced lung injury (October 16, 2024) Schematic of the human Lung Alveolus Chip: This schematic shows how the small airsacs of the lung called alveoli, specifically the alveolar-capillary interface that is the major site of radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is modeled on the Lung Alveolus Chip. DAPI staining visualizes cell nuclei throughout the culture system, whereas ZO-1, and VE-cad are markers of cell-cell adhesion complexes formed between epithelial and vascular endothelial cells, respectively. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University DNA damage assessment in radiation-exposed Lung Alveolus Chip: Image 2 caption: The team quantified the appearance of so-called “DNA damage foci” created by the repair protein p53. Each visualized spackle represents one such foci, and the number of spackles in both, epithelial (top row) and endothelial cells (bottom row) increases with the radiation dose they applied to the alveolar-capillary interface on the chips. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University