Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) involves airway inflammation and remodeling leading to small airways disease and emphysema, which results in irreversible airflow obstruction. During lung development, reciprocal interactions between the endoderm and mesoderm (epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit (EMTU)) are essential for morphogenetic cues that direct cell proliferation, differentiation, and extracellular (ECM) production. In COPD, a significant number of the inflammation and remodeling mediators resemble those released during lung development, which has led to the hypothesis that aberrant activation of the EMTU may occur in the disease. Studies assessing lung epithelial and fibroblast function in COPD, have been primarily focused on monoculture studies. To capture the in vivo environment of the human lung and aid in the understanding of mechanisms and mediators involved in abnormal epithelial-fibroblast communication in COPD, complex co-culture models are required. In this review, we describe the studies that have used co-culture models to assess epithelial-fibroblast interactions and their role in the pathogenesis of COPD.

慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）涉及气道炎症和重塑，导致小气道疾病和肺气肿，导致不可逆的气流阻塞。在肺发育过程中，内胚层和中胚层（上皮-间质营养单位（EMTU））之间的相互相互作用对于指导细胞增殖，分化和细胞外（ECM）生成的形态发生线索至关重要。在COPD中，大量的炎症和重塑介体类似于在肺发育过程中释放的那些，这导致了一种假设，即疾病中可能发生EMTU的异常激活。评估COPD中肺上皮和成纤维细胞功能的研究主要集中于单一培养研究。捕捉体内在人肺环境中，为了帮助理解COPD中异常的上皮-成纤维细胞通讯所涉及的机制和介体，需要复杂的共培养模型。在这篇综述中，我们描述了使用共培养模型评估上皮-成纤维细胞相互作用及其在COPD发病机理中的作用的研究。