Toward 3D printed microfluidic artificial lungs for veteran rehabilitation

这一技术开发项目的长期目标是改善遭受痛苦的退伍军人的康复 从肺部疾病发展到第一个真正便携的、生物兼容的、能够 短期和长期的呼吸支持。人工肺目前被用于肺病患者的康复； 然而，需要在气体交换、生物兼容性和便携性方面取得重大进展才能完全实现 他们的潜力。微流控人工肺有望通过以下方式实现一种新的真正可移植的人工肺 特征尺寸和血液通道设计更接近于天然的同类产品。我们的 小型微流控人工肺的气体交换效率是人工肺中最高的 约会。通过生物相容表面涂层的应用，它们的寿命显著提高。 最初的体内演示是在动物(大鼠)模型中进行的。然而，目前的微制造 技术将这些设备中的微流控网络限制为二维，从而严重限制了 潜在的设备拓扑，并导致血液分配网络效率低下。此外，目前的建设 技术可能不适合人类应用所需的大面积生产。在这项研究中，我们 将首次利用高分辨率3D聚合物打印技术来创建大面积微流体 肺部具有真正的三维血流网络和拓扑结构。构建的3D打印微流控 人工肺将展示适合某些人类应用的气体交换，同时使用一小部分 当前商业设备的血液接触表面积、血容量和总体积。目标 因此，当前技术开发尖端提案的目的是：1)确定最佳3D打印 用于微流控人工肺的参数；以及，2)构建并测试第一个3D打印微流控人工肺 在实验室中使用全动物血液进行肺移植。在这项研究结束时，我们将准备测试我们的3D 打印的微流控人工肺在大型动物模型中。因此，列出的目标对于推进 这项前景看好的技术为退伍军人肺部康复提供了初步的急性系统。

The long-term goal of this technology development project is improve the rehabilitation of veterans suffering from lung diseases through the development of the first truly portable, biocompatible, artificial lung capable of short and long term respiratory support. Artificial lungs are currently used to rehabilitate lung disease patients; however, significant advances in gas exchange, biocompatibility, and portability are required to fully realize their potential. Microfluidic artificial lungs promise to enable a new class of truly portable artificial lungs through feature sizes and blood channel designs that more closely mimic those found in their natural counterpart. Our small-scale microfluidic artificial lungs achieved the highest gas exchange efficiency of any artificial lung to date. Their lifetimes were significantly improved through the application of biocompatible surface coatings. Initial in vivo demonstrations were performed in an animal (rat) model. However, current microfabrication techniques limit the microfluidic networks in these devices to two dimensions, thereby severely limiting potential device topologies and resulting in inefficient blood distribution networks. Further, current construction techniques may not be suitable for the large area production required for human applications. In this study, we will for the first time harness high resolution 3D polymer printing technology to create large area microfluidic lungs with truly three dimensional blood flow networks and topologies. Constructed 3D printed microfluidic artificial lungs will exhibit gas exchange suitable for some human applications, while using a fraction of the blood contacting surface area, blood volume, and total volume of current commercial devices. The objectives of the current technology-development SPiRE proposal are thus to: 1) Determine optimal 3D printing parameters for microfluidic artificial lungs; and, 2) Construct and test the first 3D printed microfluidic artificial lung in the laboratory using whole animal blood. At the conclusion of this study, we will be ready to test our 3D printed microfluidic artificial lungs in a large animal model. The listed objectives are thus critical to advancing this promising technology towards initial acute systems for veteran pulmonary rehabilitation.