Overall, there is a rise in respiratory diseases, highlighting the need for advanced therapeutic approaches. Developing such therapeutic approaches requires adequate in vitro models. Primary cells represent excellent models for studying respiratory disease. Using cell culture, it is possible to understand disease mechanisms of the respiratory tract at a cellular level and specifically target therapies at pathogenic processes. A major focus for such in vitro models is the epithelial cells of our airways – they are at the interface between tissue and air and provide a vital barrier function. PromoCell offers a variety of Human Respiratory Cell Types, including Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells, Human Small Airway Epithelial Cells, Human Tracheal Epithelial Cells and Human Nasal Epithelial cells.
To model their specialty in vitro, airway epithelial cells can be cultured in air-liquid interface (ALI) culture systems. ALI culture systems may help bridge the gap between 2D and 3D, as they can be used to generate stable and functional 3D human airway models incorporating primary human cells through an intermediate 2D cell expansion phase.
Figure: Respiratory epithelial cells grown at the air-liquid interface will differentiate and closely mimic the epithelial barrier function.
ALI cultures are relatively easy to set up, and support cell specific and functional analysis. Another model to recapitulate structural architecture and cellular interactions are 3D organoid cultures. One can generate functional 3D airway organoids with apical-out or inward-oriented cilia formation based on Primary Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells as an in vitro model for e.g. high-throughput drug screening or large-scale virus-host interaction studies using this protocol: App-Note-Airway-Organoid.pdf
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