Short-term ex vivo tissue culture models help study human lung infectionsA review

Abstract

Most studies on human lung infection have been performed using animal models, formalin or other fixed tissues, and in vitro cultures of established cell lines. However, the experimental data and results obtained from these studies may not completely represent the complicated molecular events that take place in intact human lung tissue in vivo. The newly developed ex vivo short-term tissue culture model can mimic the in vivo microenvironment of humans and allow investigations of different cell types that closely interact with each other in intact human lung tissues. Therefore, this kind of model may be a promising tool for future studies of different human lung infections, owing to its special advantages in providing more realistic events that occur in vivo. In this review, we have summarized the preliminary applications of this novel short-term ex vivo tissue culture model, with a particular emphasis on its applications in some common human lung infections. Abbreviations: AEC = alveolar epithelial cell, AM = alveolar macrophage, C. pneumoniae = Chlamydia pneumoniae, CD163 = cluster of differentiation 163, COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019, CXCL = C-X-C motif chemokine ligand, EVLP = ex vivo lung perfusions, H. influenzae = Haemophilus influenzae, IFNs = interferons, IL = interleukin, L. pneumophila = Legionella pneumophila, MAPK = mitogen-activated protein kinase, NTHi = nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae, pHp = pulmonary haptoglobin, S. pneumoniae = Streptococcus pneumoniae, SARS-CoV-2 = severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, TLR2 = Toll-like receptor 2, TLR4 = Toll-like receptor 4, TNF-α = tumor necrosis factor-α.