Institute of Microbiology of the CAS, v. v. i., Prague, Czech Republic.
FEBS J. 2018 Dec;285(23):4343-4358. doi: 10.1111/febs.14582. Epub 2018 Jul 2.
Mammalian lungs are organs exhibiting the cellular and spatial complexity required for gas exchange to support life. The respiratory epithelium internally lining the airways is susceptible to infections due to constant exposure to inhaled microbes. Biomedical research into respiratory bacterial infections in humans has been mostly carried out using small mammalian animal models or two-dimensional, submerged cultures of undifferentiated epithelial cells. These experimental model systems have considerable limitations due to host specificity of bacterial pathogens and lack of cellular and morphological complexity. This review describes the in vitro differentiated and polarized airway epithelial cells of human origin that are used as a model to study respiratory bacterial infections. Overall, these models recapitulate key aspects of the complexity observed in vivo and can help in elucidating the molecular details of disease processes observed during respiratory bacterial infections.
哺乳动物的肺是具有气体交换功能的器官，需要具备细胞和空间复杂性才能支持生命。呼吸道内表面的呼吸上皮细胞由于持续暴露于吸入的微生物中而易受到感染。人类呼吸道细菌感染的生物医学研究主要使用小型哺乳动物动物模型或未分化上皮细胞的二维、浸没培养物进行。由于细菌病原体的宿主特异性和缺乏细胞和形态复杂性，这些实验模型系统存在相当大的局限性。本文综述了体外分化和极化的人源气道上皮细胞，可作为研究呼吸道细菌感染的模型。总的来说，这些模型再现了体内观察到的复杂性的关键方面，并有助于阐明呼吸道细菌感染过程中观察到的疾病过程的分子细节。
