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Ciliary beating is a key feature of the larger airway epithelium. In order to provide mucociliar clearance in vivo, cilia beat synchronously towards the oral cavity to propel mucus out of the respiratory system. When ciliary beating is dysfunctional, mucus accumulates in the airways increasing the risk of pneumonia. Directed and coordinated ciliary beating of the respiratory epithelium is therefore the basis for generating functional tissue-engineered tracheal substitutes. So far, it is not known which kind of stimulation is needed to achieve uniform ciliary orientation.

In our subproject C3 0132 „Guiding respiratory epithelium towards directed ciliary function“, we intend to define an optimized stimulation protocol for biomechanical conditioning of respiratory epithelium on bronchotracheal tissue constructs to obtain functional mucociliary clearance.