Rapid prototyping of a microfluidic platform for nasal mucosa models

Abstract

In-vitro 3D models of human nasal mucosa cells can offer a deeper understanding of airway pathophysiology and drug discovery. In this work, a microfluidic chip was designed with an air-liquid interface (ALI) as a model to mimicry the in vivo environment of the respiratory mucosa. A biopolymeric scaffold was integrated to act as biocompatible ALI membrane. The platform was structured using a rapid prototyping technique. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis was conducted to evaluate the air-induced shear stress on the scaffold. CFD was employed to find the target flow rate to replicate desired mechanical characteristics within a specific region of the human nasal cavity. According to this data, peristaltic pumps for air and liquid flows, were programmed to replicate physiological flows and dynamic air-induced shear stresses shear stresses on the culture.