Understanding Lung Biomechanics In Asthma By Combining ex vivo with in vivo

Asthma remains a complex and multifactorial disease, with airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine being a hallmark feature. A recent study by Rojas-Ruiz et al (2025) utilizes SCIREQ’s innovative physioLens (ex vivo) and flexiVent (in vivo) platforms to shed light on the interplay between lung tissue compliance and methacholine response, offering new insights into the mechanisms driving asthma pathology.

Researchers investigated two commonly used mouse strains for asthma modeling—BALB/c and C57BL/6. The BALB/c mice, known for their methacholine hyperresponsiveness, exhibited greater lung compliance compared to the stiffer lungs of C57BL/6 mice, as shown in Roja-Ruiz et al (2023). Intranasal exposure to house-dust mite (HDM) was used to induce experimental asthma, enabling the study of respiratory mechanics, and airway smooth muscle (ASM) contraction in these strains.