title: Pulmonary surfactant expression analysis--role of cell-cell interactions and 3-D tissue-like architecture.
abstract: Surfactant production is important in maintaining alveolar function both in vivo and in vitro, but surfactant expression is the primary property lost by alveolar Type II Pneumocytes in culture and its maintenance is a functional requirement. To develop a functional tissue-like model, the in vivo cell-cell interactions and three dimensional architecture has to be reproduced. To this end, 3D button-shaped synthetic gelatin vinyl acetate (GeVAc) co-polymer scaffold was seeded with different types of lung cells. Functionality of the construct was studied under both static and dynamic conditions. The construct was characterized by Environmental Scanning Electron and fluorescent microscopy, and functionality of the system was analyzed by studying mRNA modulations of all four surfactant genes A, B, C, and D by real time-PCR and varying culture conditions. The scaffold supports alveolar cell adhesion and maintenance of cuboidal morphology, and the alveolar-specific property of surfactant synthesis, which would otherwise be rapidly lost in culture. This is a novel 3D system that expresses all 4 surfactants for a culture duration of 3 weeks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Technology, Bio Medical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695 012, India.
authors.forename: Maya A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nandkumar
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ashna
authors.forename: Lynda V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Prabha D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Nair
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002450:Cell Communication; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D011145:Polyvinyls / Q000737:chemistry; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D037661:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D011145:Polyvinyls; D037661:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C036549:pioloform; D005780:Gelatin
keywords: alveolar cell; co-cultures; pulmonary surfactants; three-dimensional dynamic culture