Building a 3D model of Airway Smooth Muscle to Study Asthma
PhD Supervisor(s): Felicity Rose, Mark Lewis, Jon Aylott and Gavin Morris
Contact Email: paxjb@nottingham.ac.uk
Undergraduate Degree: MChem Medicinal Chemistry (University of Manchester)
PhD Summary
Airway smooth muscle (ASM) is the key effector cell in regulating airway contraction. Current in vitro methods of measuring ASM response to bronchocostrictors are limited in their complexity consisting mainly of second messenger release studies (such as calcium imaging) in 2D cell culture and contraction assays in 3D collagen gel studies. ASM seeded in gels however lack the alignment found in smooth muscle in vivo making it difficult to correlate results between them.
This project aims to develop a 3D in vitro platform to allow investigations into a fully aligned sheet of ASM cells. Electrospinning will be used to produce a range of aligned polyethylene terephthalate (PET) scaffolds of varying fibre diameter. The effects of the topographical alterations provided by the scaffolds on ASM characteristics including cell alignment, viability, and contraction will be investigated. Development of a culture force monitor to measure the physical contractile force of this fully aligned sheet of ASM will provide novel insights into the regulation of ASM contraction in asthma and other diseases of the airways.
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