Bhisham Narayan Singh

By Palla Ranga Prasad, Ananya Singh, Keisha Gomes, Sutanu Dutta, Kenza E. Tharayil, Shwetha Prakash, Meghna Shenoy, Jagnoor Singh Sandhu, Naveena AN Kumar, Bharti Bisht, Bhisham Narayan Singh and Manash K. Paul

The lungs serve a vital role in respiration, which involves exchanging gases and oxygenating the blood. The pulmonary system comprises proximal and distal segments. The trachea (windpipe) functions as an anatomical passageway within the human body for airflow during respiration. Lung and tracheal damage can result from several factors, including pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, inflammation, injury, congenital defects, and tumor formation, leading to COPD and tracheal cartilage destruction. While there have been various therapies attempted to reconstruct the lung and segmental trachea, such as transplantation, direct anastomosis, suboptimal laser treatment, stenting, autografting, and allografting, none have provided an ultimate solution. Recently, tissue engineering has emerged as a promising strategy to develop functional, biomimetic constructs that avoid the need for long-term transplantation or immunosuppression. Various bioengineering techniques like decellularization, recellularization, electrospinning, and other techniques have successfully reconstructed lung/tracheal constructs. Despite these advancements, replicating an ideal lung and tracheal structure remains a challenge due to factors such as inflammation, lack of proper vascularization, mechanical instability of biomaterials, immune rejection, and graft failure. Recently, 3D-bioprinting is one such approach that has shown promise in mimicking intricate tissue structures. Several attempts have been made to create a 3D-bioprinted lung/tracheal biomimetic substitute, but they have been unsuccessful due to various factors. This chapter aims to explore the fields of lung and tracheal bioengineering. We intend to investigate existing data and identify the challenges of creating an ideal, fully functioning 3D-bioprinted, bioengineered tracheal and lung construct replicating the original lung and trachea.

Part of the book: Advances in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering