Conditionally reprogrammed primary airway epithelial cells maintain morphology, lineage and disease specific functional characteristics

The study of the respiratory epithelium is critical to many chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) andasthma. Until recently, human airway samples have been difficult to obtain and once obtained difficult to establish a cell culture from. These cell cultures are important to understanding disease pathways and developing new therapies. This paper describes an improved laboratory method to establish and expand primary airway epithelial cell cultures. This has allowed us to culture millions more cells that before. This improvement in cell expansion has increased the amount of information that can be gained from just a small amount of starting material.

Authors: Kelly M. Martinovich, Thomas Iosifidis, Alysia G. Buckley, Kevin Looi , Kak-Ming Ling, Erika N. Sutanto, Elizabeth Kicic-Starcevich, Luke W. Garratt, Nicole C. Shaw, Samuel Montgomery, Francis J. Lannigan, Darryl A. Knight, Anthony Kicic and Stephen M. Stick.

Published in Scientific Reports in December 2017.