Scientists grow realistic lung tissue utilising magnetism

The research is part of an international trend in biomedical engineering to create laboratory techniques for growing tissues that are virtually identical to those found in people’s bodies. In the new study, researchers combined four types of cells to replicate tissue from the wall of the bronchiole deep inside the lung.

The research is scheduled to appear in a future issue of the journal Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods.

‘One of the unique things about the magnetic levitation technology is that it allows us to move cells around and arrange them the way that we want for a particular type of tissue,’ said study co-author Tom Killian, professor and department chair of physics and astronomy at Rice. ‘This is the first time anyone has arranged these four cell types in the same way that they are found in lung tissue.’

According to a statement, in-vitro laboratory tests have historically been conducted on 2D cell cultures grown in flat Petri dishes, but scientists have become increasingly aware that cells in flat cultures sometimes behave and interact differently than cells that are immersed in 3D tissue.