Respiratory Infection

Use EpiAirway to study respiratory pathogen attachment, replication, innate immune responses and anti-viral/anti-bacterial drug development.

METHODS

EpiAirway tissues (Figure 1) are equilibrated overnight under standard culture conditions (37°C, 5% CO₂) with EpiAirway Assay Media* (AIR-100-ASY).  18-24 hours later the apical surface is washed by pipetting 300 μl DPBS up and down three times (optional).  Culture supernatant is aspirated and replaced with fresh, pre-warmed media.  EpiAirway is infected at a predetermined multiplicity of infection (MOI) for application/virus specific exposure times followed by 2-3 DPBS washes to remove unbound virus.  At various time points apical washes, culture supernatants and EpiAirway tissues are collected for analysis virus titers, cytokine/chemokine levels, changes in gene expression and histological/immunohistochemical analysis.

* For bacterial infection experiments, use antibiotic free EpiAirway tissues and media (part# xxx-ABF)

RESULTS

The EpiAirway 3D human tissue model is infectable by human respiratory pathogens including Human Rhinovirus, Influenza Virus, Parainfluenza Virus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Human Bocavirus and Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae.  Multiple studies report pathogen induced changes in tissue structure, clinically relevant changes in gene expression markers and differential cytokine/chemokine production.

CONCLUSIONS

EpiAirway is a physiologically relevant 3D tissue model useful for acute or long-term pathogen infection experiments.

For more information, view Technical References.

Learn more about EpiAirway.