Attodicil / CellTest

In the improved in vitro test system, the interaction between inflammatory processes in the blood and processes in the lungs is to be mapped in a cell culture model. For this purpose, cells of the blood, blood vessels and lung epithelial cells are kept in a three-dimensional co-culture system. The starting point for the cellular components of the test system are adult stem cells from the patient's adipose tissue.

The aim of the project is to set up an improved in vitro test system for the development of drugs against chronic inflammatory diseases of the lungs. The interaction of inflammatory processes in the blood with the processes in the lungs is to be depicted in a cell culture model by keeping the blood cells, the cells of the blood vessels (endothelial cells) and the lung epithelial cells in a three-dimensional co-culture system.

The project is divided into several sub-projects: At the NMI, the goal is to provide a sufficient number of well-characterized human cells that can be used as cellular components in the new test system. For this purpose, mesenchymal stem cells are isolated from adipose tissue samples, which are then differentiated into the required blood vessel endothelial cells. In this way, the larger cell quantities required for an analytical substance test can be obtained from small starting cell quantities without using cells from different patients. This is important because there are significant individual differences between patients that can prevent comparability of analysis results. The endothelial cells provided by the NMI are to be cultivated in a co-culture network between the other cells, the blood cells and the lung epithelial cells, in order to maintain the organ-specific separation of blood and lung cells.

Other sub-projects that are being worked on by the network partners are the production and optimization of the membranes that spatially separate the cells from each other (Novalung GmbH) and the development of the analytics in the complex co-culture model (EDI GmbH).