Engineering Airway Epithelium

Airway epithelium is constantly presented with injurious signals, yet under healthy circumstances, the epithelium maintains its innate immune barrier and mucociliary elevator function. This suggests that airway epithelium has regenerative potential (I. R. Telford and C. F. Bridgman, 1990). In practice, however, airway regeneration is problematic because of slow turnover and dedifferentiation of epithelium thereby hindering regeneration and increasing time necessary for full maturation and function. Based on the anatomy and biology of the airway epithelium, a variety of tissue engineering tools available could be utilized to overcome the barriers currently seen in airway epithelial generation. This paper describes the structure, function, and repair mechanisms in native epithelium and highlights specific and manipulatable tissue engineering signals that could be of great use in the creation of artificial airway epithelium.