Human Airway Primary Epithelial Cells Show Distinct Architectures on Membrane Supports Under Different Culture Conditions

Abstract

To facilitate drug development for lung delivery, it is highly demanding to establish appropriate airway epithelial cell models as transport barriers to evaluate pharmacokinetic profiles of drug molecules. Besides the cancer-derived cell lines, as the primary cell model, normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells have been used for drug screenings because of physiological relevance to in vivo. Therefore, to accurately interpret drug transport data in NHBE measured by different laboratories, it is important to know biophysical characteristics of NHBE grown on membranes in different culture conditions. In this study, NHBE was grown on the polyester membrane in a different medium and its transport barrier properties as well as cell architectures were fully characterized by functional assays and confocal imaging throughout the days of cultures. Moreover, NHBE cells on inserts in a different medium were subject to either of air-interfaced culture (AIC) or liquid-covered culture (LCC) condition. Cells in the AIC condition were cultivated on the membrane with medium in the basolateral side only, whereas cells with medium in apical and basolateral sides under the LCC condition. Quantitative microscopic imaging with biophysical examination revealed distinct multilayered architectures of differentiated NHBE cells, suggesting NHBE as functional cell barriers for the lung-targeting drug transport.