Hmec medium

Human primary mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) were obtained from Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA, USA). MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were provided by Institut Hiscia (Arlesheim, Switzerland). HMECs were cultivated in HMEC medium (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) supplemented with HMEC supplement and bovine pituitary extract (Life Technologies, USA). Cell viability assay was performed as previously described (Khan et al., 2009 (link)). Cultures were free of mycoplasma.

Human primary mammary epithelial cells (HMECs, A10565) and embryonic lung fibroblasts (MRC5, 84002) were purchased from Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA, USA) and RD-Biotech (Besançon, France), respectively. Human breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB231 and MCF7 were obtained from Institut Hiscia (Arlesheim, Switzerland). MRC5, MDA-MB231 and MCF7 cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM) (PAN-Biotech) supplemented with fetal bovine serum (Dutscher) and penicillin/streptomycin (Life Technologies) (10% and 1% final concentration, respectively). HMECs were cultured in HMEC medium (Life Technologies) supplemented with HMEC supplement and bovine pituitary extract (Life Technologies) at 37 °C, 5% CO₂ and 95% humidity. CTH cells emerging following chronic infection with HCMV-BL and HCMV-DB isolates were cultured in the same condition as HMECs. Mycoplasma monthly screening was performed to certify mycoplasma free cultures (VenorGem classic mycoplasma detection, Minerva biolabs).