Jud, Corinne Ahmed, Sher Müller, Loretta Kinnear, Calum Vanhecke, Dimitri Umehara, Yuki Frey, Sabine Liley, Martha Angeloni, Silvia Petri-Fink, Alke Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara 2015-12-01 Epithelial tissue serves as an interface between biological compartments. Many in vitro epithelial cell models have been developed as an alternative to animal experiments to answer a range of research questions. These in vitro models are grown on permeable two-chamber systems; however, commercially available, polymer-based cell culture inserts are around 10 μm thick. Since the basement membrane found in biological systems is usually less than 1 μm thick, the 10-fold thickness of cell culture inserts is a major limitation in the establishment of realistic models. In this work, an alternative insert, accommodating an ultrathin ceramic membrane with a thickness of only 500 nm (i.e., the Silicon nitride Microporous Permeable Insert [SIMPLI]-well), was produced and used to refine an established human alveolar barrier coculture model by both replacing the conventional inserts with the SIMPLI-well and completing it with endothelial cells. The structural–functional relationship of the model was evaluated, including the translocation of gold nanoparticles across the barrier, revealing a higher translocation if compared to corresponding polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes. This study demonstrates the power of the SIMPLI-well system as a scaffold for epithelial tissue cell models on a truly biomimetic scale, allowing construction of more functionally accurate models of human biological barriers. application/pdf https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/304771 https://folia.unifr.ch/documents/304771/files/fin_ucm.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1089/biores.2015.0037 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined BioResearch Open Access. - 2015, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 457–468 info:eu-repo/classification/udc/54 Ultrathin ceramic membranes as scaffolds for functional cell coculture models on a biomimetic scale http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501