Figure 1

Organ tissue equivalent fabrication schematic. To fabricate the complete 3D OTE model, native lung fibroblasts were mixed with the hydrogel components and solubilized lung ECM and 80 μL was pipetted into an 8 μm polycarbonate membrane Transwell. After UV crosslinking, the HBEs were cultured on the apical side and allowed to differentiate at ALI for 28 days. The three main components of interest for the final OTE model are the native lung fibroblasts, solubilized lung ECM, and biomimetic hydrogel with stiffness adjusted via different crosslinkers. This figure was created using Biorender.com.