New model of human lungs to help better understand respiratory diseases

Every time you breathe in, your lungs are exposed to bacteria, viruses, pollen, and other environmental challenges.

To stay healthy, your lungs rely on a close cooperation between two key cell types: immune cells called alveolar macrophages, and the cells that line the air sacs, known as type 2 alveolar epithelial cells (AT2 cells).

Researchers from across reNEW Melbourne, based at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), the University of Melbourne and Monash University, are working together to understand how these cells communicate and interact to fight infection or repair damage of the lung cells.

Led by Dr Rhiannon Werder, reNEW Melbourne Associate Investigator and head of the MCRI  Lung Disease group, the team recently created and published their first paper in JCI Insight, describing their new stem cell–based system that brings together human AT2 cells and macrophages in an air‑liquid interface, a setup that closely reflects real lung conditions.

“It’s incredibly difficult to understand the causes of different respiratory diseases without a good model of the environment they occur in,” said first author and postdoctoral researcher Dr Declan Turner.

“This new stem cell-based model of human lung cells, co-cultured with human macrophages, will allow us to interrogate the relationship between these cells in both the healthy lung and during exposure to environmental challenges, like viral infections,” he said.

“We hope that by better understanding the interaction between AT2 cells and alveolar macrophages, we can work towards new treatments for lung diseases”, said Dr Werder.