New treatments for deadly lung disease could be revealed by 3D modeling.

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A 3D bioengineered model of lung tissue built by University of Michigan researchers is poking holes in decades worth of flat, Petri dish observations into how the deadly disease pulmonary fibrosis progresses.

The causes of pulmonary fibrosis are not fully understood, but the condition is marked by scar tissue that forms inside the lungs. That scar tissue stiffens the walls of the lungs’ air sacs, called alveoli, or, at advanced stages, it can completely fill the alveolar spaces. Both scenarios make breathing difficult and decrease the amount of oxygen entering the bloodstream. Often the condition is irreversible, eventually causing lung failure and death.

Some clinicians are concerned that critically ill COVID-19 patients may develop a form of pulmonary fibrosis after a long stay in the ICU.

bme.umich.edu/new-treatment...