Smooth muscle mimic to advance asthma drug testing

The device is said to accurately mimic the way smooth muscle contracts in the human airway, under normal circumstances and when exposed to asthma triggers. It is also said to offer a window into the cellular and subcellular responses within the tissue during an asthmatic event.

As reported in Lab on a Chip, the chip - a soft polymer well that is mounted on a glass substrate - contains a planar array of microscale, engineered human airway muscles designed to mimic the laminar structure of the muscular layers of the human airway.

To mimic a typical allergic asthma response, the team first introduced interleukin-13 (IL-13) to the chip. IL-13 is a natural protein often found in the airway of asthmatic patients that mediates the response of smooth muscle to an allergen.

Then they introduced acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that causes smooth muscle to contract. The airway muscle on the chip hypercontracted – and the soft chip curled up – in response to higher doses of the neurotransmitter.