For their model, they used lung tissue from lung cancer operations. For long-term culture, the primary cells, however, grow on feeder cells obtained from a mouse fibroblast cell line. The co-culture is supplied with a proliferation factor and other substances. With the appropriate differentiation factors, they continue to develop the cells into alveolar epithelial cells, which are growing in an organoid form.

The scientists use their alveolar organoids to investigate antiviral drugs and vaccines against the coronavirus.

Canadian scientists have reported that a co-culture of primary cells on a feeder layer of irradiated 3T3 cells (i3T3) of the mouse is namely a common practice in tissue engineering. However, years ago it had been shown that feeder layers secrete N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) from the mice cells. The researchers found that humans are unable to produce from their precursor cells, but they still retain the ability to take up Neu5Gc, against which they have circulating antibodies (1).


That is why scientists led by Sylvain L. Guérin from the Université Laval in Québec have already used irradiated human dermal fibroblasts (iHFL) as a feeder layer and have shown that they are as efficient as those from mice in maintaining the proliferative properties of the desired culture cells and the number of cell passages for which they could be cultured.

The original publication of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology:
Imai-Matsushima, A.; Martin-Sancho, L.; Karlas, A.; Imai, S.; Zoranovic, T.; Hocke, A. C.; Mollenkopf, H.-J.; Berger, H.; Meyer, T. F. (2018): Long-Term Culture of Distal Airway Epithelial Cells Allows Differentiation Towards Alveolar Epithelial Cells Suited for Influenza Virus Studies. EBioMedicine 33, pp. 230 - 241. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.05.032

Source:
https://www.bionity.com/de/news/1165821/lungen-organoide-als-ideales-testsystem-fuer-eine-corona-infektion.html?pk_campaign=ca0264&WT.mc_id=ca0264

(1 ) Gaëtan Le-Bel, Sergio Cortez Ghio, Louis-Philippe Guérin, Francis Bisson, Lucie Germain & Sylvain L. Guérin (2019). Irradiated Human Fibroblasts as a Substitute Feeder Layer to Irradiated Mouse 3T3 for the Culture of Human Corneal Epithelial Cells: Impact on the Stability of the Transcription Factors Sp1 and NFI. Int J Mol Sci. 20/24: 6296. doi: 10.3390/ijms20246296.