Cytotoxicity and Genomic Integrity in Lung Cells

Two pulmonary epithelial cell types were used in the present study. All cells were maintained at 37 °C and 5% CO₂ with standard aseptic procedures. Immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B, ATCC, Manassas, VA) of less than 10 passages upon arriving in our laboratory were used to examine cytotoxicity, nuclear uptake, cell cycle arrest, mitotic aberrations, centrosome integrity, and spindle pole integrity. BEAS-2B were cultured in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) media supplemented with 10% (v/v) serum (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY) and 1% (v/v) antibiotic-antimycotic (Corning, Corning, NY). Primary small airway respiratory epithelial cells (SAEC; Lonza, Walkersville, MD) from a non-smoking human donor were used to examine cytotoxicity, nuclear uptake, cell cycle arrest, aneuploidy, and clonal growth. The normal karyotype of the primary cells was essential for the examination of aneuploidy. The SAEC were cultured following manufacturer’s directions and using Cabrex media (Lonza, Walkersville, MD). Epithelial phenotype was identified in both cell types through EM analysis of stained cytokeratin 8 and 18 (data not shown) [37 (link)].