Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) replication is primarily limited to the upper respiratory tract epithelium and primary, differentiated normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) have, therefore, been considered a good system for in vitro analysis of lung tissue response to respiratory virus infection and virus-host interactions. However, NHBE cells are expensive, difficult to culture, and vary with the source patient. An alternate approach is to use a continuous cell line that has features of bronchial epithelial cells such as Calu-3, an epithelial cell line derived from human lung adenocarcinoma, as an in vitro model of respiratory virus infection. The results show that Calu-3 fully polarize when grown on permeable supports as liquid-covered cultures. Polarized Calu-3 are susceptible to RSV infection and release infectious virus primarily from the apical surface, consistent with studies in NHBE cells. The data demonstrate that polarized Calu-3 may serve as a useful in vitro model to study host responses to RSV infection.
Published by Elsevier B.V.