Table 1.
Characteristics of Common Airway Epithelial Cell Lines
| Airway epithelial cell line | Source material | Donor age | Donor sex | Donor race | Method of immortalization | Tumorigenic in mice | Tight junction formation | Cytokeratin expression | Differentiation into pseudostratified epithelium | Recommended growth medium | Isolation year | Isolation reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A549 | Lung carcinoma | 58 years | Male | Caucasian | Tumor-derived | Yes1 | No/yes2 | Yes2 | NR | F-12K + 10% FBS | 1972 | 1 | A549 cells were reported to form tight junctions when grown in three-dimensional spheroid culture, but not when grown in monolayers. |
| Calu-3 | Lung adenocarcinoma | 25 years | Male | Caucasian | Tumor-derived | Yes3 | Yes4 | Yes5 | NR | MEM +10% FBS | 1975 | NR | |
| BEAS-2B | Normal bronchial epithelium | NR | NR | NR | SV40 T-antigen expression | No6 | No7/yes8 | Yes9 | NR | BEGM or KGM serum-free medium | 1988 | 9 | Growth of BEAS-2B in the presence of FBS is associated with squamous differentiation14,15 and alterations in basal metabolism,15 ion homeostasis,16 and cytokine secretion in response to toxic exposure17 |
| 16HBE | Normal bronchial epithelium | 1 year | Male | NR | SV40 T-antigen expression | No10 | Yes4 | Yes11 | NR | MEM +10% FBS | 1994 | 11 | |
| HBEC3-KT | Normal bronchial epithelium | 65 years | Female | NR | SV40 T-antigen expression | No12 | Yes13 | Yes13 | Yes10 | Gibco KSFM | 2004 | 14 |
BEGM, bronchial epithelial growth medium; FBS, fetal bovine serum; KGM, keratinocyte growth medium; MEM, minimum essential medium; NR, not reported.
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