Figure 4. Primary esophageal epithelial cells from an EoE subject exhibit fibrogenic behavior compared to non-EoE control when grown in organotypic cell culture (OTC).
Primary esophageal epithelial cells (passage 3) were harvested from subjects 394 (EoE) and 425 (non-EoE), and seeded onto a matrix of FEF3 cells within a collagen matrix. OTC was also constructed using EPC2-hTERT cells. Following epithelial differentiation and stratification, OTC were harvested for immunolocalization of EMT markers. A, B, C: Expression of mesenchymal marker vimentin (yellow) in EPC2-hTERT, EPC394 (EoE) and EPC425 (non-EoE) OTC. D, E, F: E-cadherin expression (red) in EPC2-hTERT, EPC394 (EoE) and EPC425 (non-EoE) grown in OTC. G, H, I: Expression of α-SMA (green) in OTC constructed using EPC2-hTERT, EPC394, and EPC425 cell lines. In all sections, nuclei are counterstained with DAPI (blue). Epithelial (Epi) and subepithelial (Sub) compartments are labeled. Images shown are at 200X magnification.