Culturing HMEC-1 Cells for Experiments

The HMEC-1 cell line (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA) was kindly gifted by Prof. Nicoletta Basilico, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Chirurgiche e Odontoiatriche, Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy). Cells were grown in MCDB 131 medium (Sigma Aldrich) plus 1% penicillin/streptomycin, 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 20 mM HEPES buffer, 1 μg/mL hydrocortisone and 10 ng/mL epidermal growth factor (EGF) [31 (link)]. Cells were maintained at 37 °C in a 5% CO₂ atmosphere and passaged every 3/4 days. For experiments, where not differently stated, cells’ growth lasted 48 h.