Polmunary epithelial barrier formation on biodegradable poly-L-lactic-acid (PLLA) membrane

Aims: Investigation of epithelialbarrierformationon PLLA membranefor application in bioengineering.Background: The development of functional and biocompatible substitutes for damaged tissue or organs is a big challenge in biomedical engineering. The epithelial barrier playsa central role in tissue homeostasis and immunitypreventing damage andcontamination of the interstitial tissues.Different in vitro modelshavebeenwell characterized forepithelial barriersof the intestine and indeed of the lung,mainly on not biodegradableand/or not biocompatiblescaffolds. Therefore,there is a need of better surrogate of epithelian barriermodel for future application in tissue engineering.Methods:Biodegradable PLLA membraneswere used as scaffold to create anepithelial barrier model.Lung epithelial cells were cultured on PLLA membranetranwellsin order to assess the trans epithelial electric resistance(TERR)and proper barrier formationResults:In our experiments wewere able to detecta significant increase ofTEER values of lung epithelial cells cultured on PLLA transwells that correlate with the formation of intercellular tight junctions.Conclusions:A functionalepithelial barrier can be established on biodegradable PLLA membrane that beyond to be biocompatible it can be produced with different morphology and mechanical properties. Therefore, PLLA membrane seems to be a good candidate intissue engineering addressingnew applications of bioabsorbablemembranesin tissueor organregeneration.