Primary fibroblast cell cultures from transbronchial biopsies of lung transplant recipients

Background Survival after lung transplantation is limited by the development of bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) that is a fibroproliferative process and regarded as the histological marker of chronic rejection, To study further the pathogenesis of BO we attempted to establish primary fibroblast cell cultures from transbronchial lung biopsies (TBBs)of lung transplant recipients. Methods. One to two TBB samples from each patient were collected in sterile phosphate-buffered saline. Biopsies were cut into small pieces and placed onto 25-cm(2) culture flasks for cell culture and kept under standard cell culture conditions (21% O-2, 5% CO2, 37 degreesC). Culture medium consisted of RPMI 1640, 10% fetal calf serum, L-glutamine, HEPES, and antibiotics. After reaching confluence, fibroblasts were passaged into 75-cm(2) flasks. Results. The success rate of establishing fibroblast cultures from transbronchial lung biopsies was 54% (27/50). Cell growth was independent of patient age, transplant type, underlying lung disease, indication for transbronchial lung biopsies, grade, or type of rejection and infection. Conclusions. We have established a novel method of culturing fibroblasts from lung transplant recipients. We consider this method as an unique human in vitro model to study the pathogenetic mechanisms leading to BO.