ABSTRACT
The quest to develop more physiologically relevant human cell
culture models that can be used for predictive preclinical studies
has led to a movement toward developing 3D multicell culture
models. Culturing cells in 3D on appropriate scaffolds is thought
to better mimic the in vivo microenvironment and increase
cell-cell interactions, therefore being more relevant to studying
the molecular events and cell-cell interactions involved in the
pathogenesis of diseases such as those relating to the lung. To
create effective 3D cultures with high cell viability throughout the
scaffold, the culture conditions such as oxygen and pH need to be
carefully controlled as gradients in analyte concentration can exist
throughout the 3D construct. Here we describe the development
of biocompatible scaffolds for construction of a human lung model
and a sensing strategy involving incorporation of analyte-responsive
nanosensors into electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)
fibers to create novel self-reporting scaffolds. The self-reporting
scaffolds can be used as tools to determine analyte concentrations
within a scaffold microenvironment. Being able to monitor microen-
vironment conditions in real time without damaging the engineered
tissue presents enormous opportunities to fully understand and
optimize the production of 3D model tissue constructs.
