Development of the MC3 BioLung™

MC3 has previously developed a total artificial lung that can supply full pulmonary support, while imparting the appropriate impedance characteristics to allow perfusion by the right ventricle. To date, the MC3 device has been tested in healthy and sick animals, demonstrating both performance and improved survival. This article describes the engineering design and preliminary testing of the next generation of the MC3 device, called the BioLung™. The design goals were to decrease the overall device size and remove areas of blood flow stasis in the fiber bundle to improve gas exchange efficiency and minimize thrombus formation. Based on CFD analysis and bench-top pressure-flow and gas exchange performance, we successfully decreased the fiber surface area 24%, while maintaining the oxygen transfer rates, and lowered the pressure drop by 10% to 40%. Animal studies without anticoagulation demonstrated that the new design removed the formation of thrombosis in the collection gap region between the fiber bundle and device housing, and decreased the amount of micro thrombi visible in the fiber bundle. Although these results are preliminary, they strongly suggest that the BioLung™ design will be a significant step towards moving the MC3 artificial lung technology to clinical application.