Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Physiology (Bethesda). 2022 Sep 1;37(5):0. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00012.2022. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
The intertwined relationship between structure and function has been key to understanding human organ physiology and disease pathogenesis. An organ-on-a-chip (organ chip) is a bioengineered microfluidic cell culture device lined by living cells and tissues that recapitulates organ-level functions in vitro. This is accomplished by recreating organ-specific tissue-tissue interfaces and microenvironmental biochemical and mechanical cues while providing dynamic perfusion through endothelium-lined vascular channels. In this review, we discuss how this emerging technology has contributed to the understanding of human lung structure-function relationships at the cell, tissue, and organ levels.
结构与功能的相互关系一直是理解人体器官生理学和疾病发病机制的关键。器官芯片（organ chip）是一种生物工程微流控细胞培养装置，由活细胞和组织组成，可在体外再现器官水平的功能。这是通过重建器官特异性组织-组织界面以及微环境生化和机械线索，同时通过内皮细胞衬里的血管通道提供动态灌注来实现的。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了这项新兴技术如何有助于理解人类肺部在细胞、组织和器官水平上的结构-功能关系。
