ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Respiratory Physiology and Pathophysiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1621177
This article is part of the Research TopicTranslating Biomechanics of the Human Airways for Classification, Diagnosis and Treatment of Pulmonary DiseasesView all 5 articles
Small scale electrostatically-driven aerosol deposition in airway-on-chip models of bronchial constriction
Provisionally accepted
Ron Bessler1*
Tirosh Mekler1Rami Fishler1Oshri Farhana1Sigal Dhatavkar1Tamar Daniel1Bar Kalifa1
KENICHIRO KOSHIYAMA2
Netanel Korin1
Josue Sznitman1*- 1Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- 2Graduate School of Technology, Industrial and Social Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan
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Obstructive pulmonary diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are widespread and represent a major global health burden. Despite their impact, effective therapeutic delivery to the small airways using inhaled aerosols remains suboptimal. In this study, we present a novel in vitro airway-on-chip platform that mimics both normal and constricted small bronchial geometries to quantify the deposition charged and neutral polystyrene latex (PSL) aerosol particles ranging from 0.2 to 2 µm. Analytical and numerical solutions were derived from dimensionless scaling laws to further support the experiments and predict deposition location. Our experiments showcase how electrostatic forces significantly alter deposition patterns across particle sizes in these small airways. For submicron particles, we observe the enhancement of proximal airway deposition due to the coupling of electrostatic-diffusive screening effects. For larger particles, which typically deposit only in the direction of gravity, the inclusion of electrostatic forces significantly extends their deposition footprint, enabling deposition even in orientations where gravitational sedimentation is not feasible. Constricted regions consistently exhibit lower deposition across all cases, the presence of electrostatic forces enhanced overall deposition, offering a potential strategy for targeting bronchioles. Together, these findings suggest that electrostatic attraction may be strategically leveraged to enhance aerosol targeting in the small airways, providing new opportunities for optimizing inhaled drug delivery in obstructive lung diseases.
Keywords: Airway-on-Chip, pulmonary drug delivery, Obstructive pulmonary disease, non-dimensionalanalysis, Aerosol inhalation, Electrostatics
Received: 30 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bessler, Mekler, Fishler, Farhana, Dhatavkar, Daniel, Kalifa, KOSHIYAMA, Korin and Sznitman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ron Bessler, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Josue Sznitman, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.