2D- and 3D-differentiation of alveolar epithelial cells from hiPSCs

Title	2D- and 3D-differentiation of alveolar epithelial cells from hiPSCs
Acronym	AlveoDiff
Start date	2020-05-01
End date	2022-05-01
Sponsor	Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT

Project Description

Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) are promising tools for pharmaceutical in vitro screening. With regard to their application, reproducible differentiation processes are demanded, for which two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) approaches are conceivable. It remained unclear so far, if alveolar differentiation can be performed under both culture conditions and whether those differ in their gene and protein expression pattern of defined markers. A differentiation approach based on suspension bioreactors has been established for the 3D generation of AECs and gene and protein expression analysis has been performed in comparison to cells differentiated under 2D monolayer conditions in five different hiPSC lines. The overall results of this study indicate that the dynamic 3D- as well as the standard 2D-approach are suitable methods to generate AECs for alveolar in vitro models.