Modeling stochastic and spatial heterogeneity in a human airway tree to determine variation in respiratory system resistance

Asthma is a variable disease with changes in symptoms and airway function over many time scales. Airway resistance (Raw) is variable and thought to reflect changes in airway smooth muscle activity, but just how variation throughout the airway tree and the influence of gas distribution abnormalities affect Raw is unclear. We used a multibranch airway lung model to evaluate variation in airway diameter size, the role of coherent regional variation, and the role of gas distribution abnormalities on mean Raw (Raw) and variation in Raw as described by the SD (SDRaw). We modified an anatomically correct airway tree, provided by Merryn Tawhai (The University of Auckland, New Zealand), consisting of nearly 4,000 airways, to produce temporal and spatial heterogeneity. As expected, we found that increasing the diameter variation by twofold, with no change in the mean diameter, increased SDRaw more than fourfold. Perhaps surprisingly, Raw was proportional to SDRaw under several conditions-when either mean diameter was fixed, and its SD varied or when mean diameter varied, and SD was fixed. Increasing the size of a regional absence in gas distribution (ventilation defect) also led to a proportionate increase in both Raw and SDRaw. However, introducing regional dependence of connected airways strongly increased SDRaw by as much as sixfold, with little change in Raw. The model was able to predict previously reported Raw distributions and correlation of SDRaw on Raw in healthy and asthmatic subjects. The ratio of SDRaw to Raw depended most strongly on interairway coherent variation and only had a slight dependence on ventilation defect size. These findings may explain the linear correlation between variation and mean values of Raw but also suggest that regional alterations in gas distribution and local coordination in ventilation amplify any underlying variation in airway diameters throughout the airway tree

Oscillometry and pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging in asthma and COPD

Developed over six decades ago, pulmonary oscillometry has re-emerged as a noninvasive and effort-independent method for evaluating respiratory-system impedance in patients with obstructive lung disease. Here, we evaluated the relationships between hyperpolarize

Modelling lung tissue theology

A model was developed to account for the static elastic behaviour of the lung tissue strip in terms of distributions of collagen and elastin fibers. Distributions of collagen fiber lengths and elastin fiber stiffnesses were determined by fitting the model to data from dog lung tissue strips. These distributions followed 1/f power-laws for more than 95% of the data. Computer simulations of two dimensional tissue strip models with 1/f distributions of collagen fiber lengths also predicted realistic stress-strain curves. The simulations illustrated the gradual development of geometric and stress heterogeneity throughout the tissue as the collagen fibers were recruited during stretch. This model suggests a mechanistic basis for the shape of the pressure-volume curve of whole lung. It also indicates how this curve may be affected by changes in tissue collagen and elastin similar to the changes occurring in the diseases of pulmonary emphysema and fibrosis. Nonparametric block-structured nonlinear models for describing both the static and dynamic stress-strain behaviour of the lung were applied to dog lung tissue strips and to whole rat lungs in vivo. Both the Wiener and Hammerstein models accounted for more than 99% of the tissue strip data, although the Hammerstein model was more consistently accurate across a range of perturbation amplitudes and operating stresses. Plastic dissipation of energy within the lung tissue strip was estimated at less than 20% of the total dissipation during slow sinusoidal cycling. The Hammerstein model was also the best of those investigated for describing the rat lung data in vivo, although there were dependencies of the model parameters on perturbation amplitude and operating point that indicate that a more complicated model is required for the whole lung. Finally, construction of a fiber recruitment model for the dynamic mechanical behaviour of lung tissue strips was attempted. However accurate reproduction of measured behaviour was n

Computer controlled oscillator for dynamic testing of biological soft tissue strips

A computer controlled tissue strip oscillator has been constructed for the advanced study of lung parenchyma mechanics. The data acquisition and control are facilitated on a 486 personal computer. The tissue is maintained by a continuously circulating bath of Krebs-Ringer solution at 37$sp circ$C bubbled with a 95% O$sb2$ and 5% CO$sb2$ gas mixture. The oscillator has a useful bandwidth to 20 Hz at 0.5 cm amplitude and step response with no overshoot at all amplitudes. The movement range of the motor is 5 cm with resolution 13.6 $mu$m. The force resolution is 66 $mu$N with a range of 0.25 N. A tissue preconditioning protocol was developed as a standard maneuver to be conducted prior to applying length perturbations about specific operating stresses. The tissue strip oscillator has been successfully tested on dog lung tissue strips

Mechanical properties of cultured human airway smooth muscle cells from 0.05 to 0.4 Hz.

We investigated the rheological properties of living human airway smooth muscle cells in culture and monitored the changes in rheological properties induced by exogenous stimuli. We oscillated small magnetic microbeads bound specifically to integrin receptors and computed the storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G") from the applied torque and the resulting rotational motion of the beads as determined from their remanent magnetic field. Under baseline conditions, G' increased weakly with frequency, whereas G" was independent of the frequency. The cell was predominantly elastic, with the ratio of G" to G' (defined as eta) being ~0.35 at all frequencies. G' and G" increased together after contractile activation and decreased together after deactivation, whereas eta remained unaltered in each case. Thus elastic and dissipative stresses were coupled during changes in contractile activation. G' and G" decreased with disruption of the actin fibers by cytochalasin D, but eta increased. These results imply that the mechanisms for frictional energy loss and elastic energy storage in the living cell are coupled and reside within the cytoskeleton