RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A Pumpless Microfluidic Neonatal Lung Assist Device for Support of Preterm Neonates in Respiratory Distress JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.02.22.961102 DO 10.1101/2020.02.22.961102 A1 Mohammadhossein Dabaghi A1 Niels Rochow A1 Neda Saraei A1 Gerhard Fusch A1 Shelley Monkman A1 Kevin Da A1 Alireza Shahin-Shamsabadi A1 John L. Brash A1 Dragos Predescu A1 Kathleen Delaney A1 Christoph Fusch A1 P. Ravi Selvaganapathy YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/25/2020.02.22.961102.abstract AB Premature neonates suffer from respiratory morbidity as their lungs are immature and current supportive treatment such as mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) cause iatrogenic injuries. A non-invasive and biomimetic concept known as the “artificial placenta” would be beneficial to overcome complications associated with the current respiratory support of preterm infants. Here, a pumpless oxygenator connected to the systemic circulation supports the lung function to relieve respiratory distress. In this paper, we demonstrate the first successful operation of a microfluidic, artificial placenta type neonatal lung assist device (LAD) on a newborn piglet model which is the closest representation of preterm human infants. This LAD has high oxygenation capability in both pure oxygen and room air as the sweep gas. It was able to relieve the respiratory distress that the newborn piglet was put under during experimentation, repeatedly and over significant duration of time. These findings indicate that this LAD has potential application as a biomimetic artificial placenta to support respiratory needs of preterm neonates.